UC-NRLF 


SMD    532 


WITH  DEWEY 
AT  ;  ;  MANILA 


By  THOS.  J.  VIVIAN 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  FALL  OF  SANTIAGO." 


COMMODORE     GTvORC.E     DRWKY 


WITH  DEWEY 
:  :  AT  MANILA 


T>EING  the  Plain  Story  of  the  glo 
rious  Victory  of  the  United  States 
Squadron  Over  the  Spanish  Fleet 
Sunday    Morning,    May    First, 
1898,  as  related  in  the  Notes 
and   Correspondence    of  an 
Officer    on     Board 
the    Fl agship 
Olympia 


EDITED  BY  THOMAS  J.  iVIVIAN 


R.  F.   FENNO  &  COMPANY 
9  AND  11  EAST  1 6TH  STREET       -       NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1898 

BY 

JU  F.  FBNNO  &  COMPANY 


E7/7 
•  7 


WITH   DEWEY  AT  MANILA. 

CHAPTER  I. 

WAITING    FOB    THE    ORDER. 

WE  had  been  simmering  and  stewing  in 
steamy  Hong  Kong  ever  since  March  28,  wait 
ing  and  waiting  for  instructions  to  swing  across 
the  China  Sea  to  Manila.  Rear-Admiral  Dewey — 
he  was  Commodore  Dewey  then — was  as  anxious 
and  impatient  as  the  rest  of  us,  and  I  could  see  by 
the  way  in  which  he  fumbled  over  the  charts 
and  paced  up  and  down  the  bridge  with  his 
weather  eye  turned  to  the  shore  that  he  expected 
such  an  order  from  Washington  at  any  moment. 

We  knew  that  the  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  Spain  were  at  snapping-point  ten 
sion,  and  we  knew  too,  that  as  soon  as  that 
break  occurred  the  two  opposing  Asiatic  squad 
rons  would  be  in  the  thick  of  the  trouble.  Our 
waiting  work  was  not,  however,  confined  to  sim 
mering  and  fretting,  for  during  the  days  between 
April  18  and  April  21  there  was  much  done  in 
the  work  of  stirring  preparation. 


8  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  19th,  for  instance, 
the  carpenter  of  the  Olympia  received  orders  to 
mix  up  his  "war  paint,  and  in  a  short  time  after, 
the  painters'  planks  were  swung  out  and  a  crowd 
of  our  Jackies  was  covering  the  white  sides  of  the 
flagship  with  a  dull  dark  drab ;  ugly  enough  to 
look  at,  but  admirably  adapted  for  concealing  a 
fleet  from  observation.  A  "White  Squadron"  is 
well  enough  for  spectacular  purposes  in  times  of 
peace,  but  it  is  far  too  showy  for  war  times,  and 
especially  for  service  in  these  sun-lit  seas  where 
the  glistening  sides  of  white  war  craft  can  be 
seen  against  the  furthest  horizon.  The  least  vis 
ibility  is  what  we  wanted  and  we  took  a  leaf  out  of 
Russia's  book  in  using  the  drab,  the  commanders 
of  the  Czar's  ships  having  found  it  to  be  the  best 
concealing  color  in  the  paint  lockers.  While  the 
Olympia  was  being  painted  the  same  work  was 
going  on  along  the  sides  of  the  other  ships,  and 
by  nightfall  of  the  20th  our  six  vessels  were  all 
of  the  same  uniform  dull  gray.  The  Baltimore 
had  not  arrived  then,  but  when  she  came  in  on 
the  21st  she  had  scarcely  anchored  before  she 
too  put  on  her  war  paint. 

Another  sign  of  what  was  to  come  was  fur 
nished  by  the  Commodore  some  days  ago.  The 
English  steamer  Nanshan  had  just  arrived  with 
three  thousand  three  hundred  tons  of  Cardiff 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  9 

coal  on  board  and,  knowing  that  as  soon  as  war 
broke  out  England  would  declare  her  neutrality 
and  we  should  not  be  able  to  coal  from  the  Hong 
Kong  wharves,  the  Commodore  quietly  sent  over 
the  fleet  paymaster  to  the  consignees  and  he  as 
quietly  purchased  from  them  the  entire  outfit, 
ship,  coal  and  all.  So,  too,  when  the  steamer 
Zafiro  of  the  Manila-Hong  Kong  line  came  into 
this  port  she  was  bought  out  as  she  floated,  with 
all  her  fuel  and  provisions.  On  board  the  Zafiro 
we  shipped  all  our  spare  ammunition  so  that  she 
really  became  our  floating  magazine. 

It  was  feared  at  first  that  we  might  have  some 
trouble  in  manning  these  two  steamers,  but  the 
original  crews  seemed  only  too  glad  to  re-ship 
under  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Lieutenant 
Hutchins  was  sent  over  to  the  Nanshan,  and  En 
sign  Pierson  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Zafiro, 
both  fellows  grumbling  at  the  assignments,  be 
cause,  they  said,  it  meant  that  they  would  be 
huddled  off  into  some  safe  corner  without  any 
chance  of  being  in  the  midst  of  the  scrim 
mage. 

On  the  18th  the  lookouts  reported  the  Hugh 
McCulloch,  and  when  the  little  revenue  cutter 
came  in  with  her  whistle  tooting,  and  the  spray 
dancing  up  and  down  her  yacht-like  bow,  the 
men  of  the  squadron  sent  up  a  yell  that  brought 


10  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

every  sampan  man  out  of  cover  to  see  what  had 
happened. 

"Now  the  squadron  is  safe/'  said  Captain 
Gridley,  with  his  queer  smile. 

All  the  same,  the  little  revenue  cutter  did 
good  service,  and  if  she  had  been  allowed  her 
way  would  have  done  something  during  the  next 
week  that  would  have  made  her  the  most-talked- 
about  boat  in  the  world. 

The  McCulloch  was  on  her  way  to  San  Fran 
cisco,  having  been  making  the  tour  of  the  world 
across  the  Atlantic,  down  the  Mediterranean, 
through  the  Suez  Canal,  and  so  across  the  Indian 
Seas  to  Singapore.  She  belongs,  it  is  true,  to 
the  Treasury  Department,  but  in  times  of  na 
tional  exigency  the  president  has  the  right,  and 
the  power,  to  muster  all  revenue  cutters  into  the 
navy.  It  was  at  Singapore  that  Captain  Daniel 
B.  Hodgson  received  his  orders  to  join  the  Com 
modore,  an  order  that  sent  up  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  cutter's  officers  to  fever  heat  and  the  caps  of 
her  crew  into  the  air  as  high  as  they  could  pitch 
them. 

It  was  thought  for  a  time  that  we  might  use 
the  old  Monocacy  which  lies  at  Shanghai,  but 
after  looking  her  over  it  was  decided  that  she 
would  be  a  drawback  to  the  expedition,  and  so 
she  was  left  in  the  river  and  lies  there  still.  Her 


With  Devvey  at  Manila.  11 

crew  was  broken  up  and  three  officers  and  fifty 
men  were  brought  here  and  distributed  around 
the  fleet. 

As  all  the  world  knows  diplomatic  relations 
between  the  United  States  and  Spain  were 
broken  off  on  the  21st  of  April,  war  being  de 
clared  on  the  25th,  and  within  the  next  forty- 
eight  hours  our  squadron,  in  obedience  to  a  polite 
intimation  from  the  Governor-General  of  Hong 
Kong,  steamed  away  from  that  British  possession 
up  to  Mirs  Bay,  a  little  Chinese  roadstead  a  few 
miles  to  the  north  of  the  island. 

On  the  26th  of  April  the  McCulloch,  which  we 
had  left  at  Hong  Kong,  came  racing  up  to  Mirs 
Bay,  bringing  McKinley's  famous  order: 

"WASHINGTON,  April  26. 

"DEWEY,  Asiatic  Squadron  :  Commence  opera 
tions  at  once,  particularly  against  the  Spanish 
fleet.  You  must  capture  or  destroy  them. 

"McKlNLEY." 

When  the  Commodore  read  the  dispatch  he 
closed  up  his  lips  with  his  characteristic  snap : 
"Thank  the  Lord,  "he  said  "  at  last  I've  got  the 
chance  and  I'll  wipe  them  off  the  Pacific 
Ocean. " 

Everybody  knew  what  the  "them"  referred  to. 
Ever  since  we  had  heard  of  the  blowing  up  of 


12  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

the  Maine  every  man  in  the  squadron  had  been 
fighting  mad,  and  wanted  only  one  thing — to  get 
at  the  Spaniards.  I  believe,  too,  that  there  was 
not  a  soul  in  the  fleet  but  would  have  most 
piously  and  earnestly  said  "Amen"  had  he  heard 
the  Commodore's  exclamation  of  thankfulness.  I 
know  I  did. 

Consul  Williams  came  up  on  the  McCulloch 
also  with  dispatches.  He  had  hurried  out  of 
Manila  when  things  grew  too  hot,  and  on  the 
quiet  intimation  from  Governor-General  Au- 
gusti  that  his  life  was  in  danger.  He  brought 
us  much  interesting  information,  but  nothing 
that  was  not  overshadowed  by  the  president's 
order. 

The  news  spread  like  lightning  throughout  the 
fleet,  and  when  the  Commodore's  signal  went  up 
calling  the  commanders  over  to  the  Olympia  for 
counsel  and  orders,  a  cheer  went  up  such  as  old 
Mirs  Bay  never  heard  before — the  cheer  of  full- 
throated  American  tars  who  knew  that  fighting 
was  at  hand  and  that  at  last  they  would  have  a 
chance  to  show  how  well  they  remembered  the 
Maine.  At  exactly  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
of  April  27,  1898 — it  is  just  as  well  to  be  exact 
when  the  making  of  history  is  concerned — we 
ran  up  the  Commodore's  sailing  pennant  and 
steamed  out  of  Mirs  Bay,  with  every  ship's  nose 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  13 

pointed  straight  across  for  the  six  hundred 
and  twenty-eight-mile  run  to  the  Philippines. 

We  were  nine  vessels  in  all,  made  up  as  follows : 
The  Olympia  (flagship),  a  second-class  protected 
cruiser;  the  Baltimore,  also  a  second-class  pro 
tected  cruiser;  the  Boston,  also  a  second-class 
protected  cruiser;  the  Raleigh,  of  the  same  size 
and  class  as  the  Boston ;  the  Concord,  a  partially 
protected  gunboat ;  the  Hugh  McCulloch,  a  steel- 
clad  revenue  cutter,  turned  into  a  gunboat ;  the 
Petrel,  a  small  gunboat ;  and  the  two  transport 
ships,  the  Zafiro  and  the  Nanshan.  The  proper 
place  in  which  to  speak  of  the  squadron's  arma 
ment,  tonnage,  weight  of  metal  and  other  fight 
ing  qualities  will  come  later,  when  a  comparison 
between  the  American  and  Spanish  fleets  is  more 
immediately  necessary  to  a  description  of  the 
battle,  and  this  condensed  list  is  given  here  in 
order  to  fix  the  individuality  of  our  ships  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader. 

We  appreciated  the  fact  that  the  Spanish  fleet 
was  far  more  numerous  than  ours,  and  though 
we  were  not  definitely  sure  as  to  its  exact  num 
bers  we  did  know  that  it  embraced  the  five 
cruisers  the  Eeina  Christina,  the  Castilla,  the 
Velasco,  the  Don  Juan  de  Austria,  and  the  Don 
Antonio  de  Ulloa.  It  is  true  that  many  of  the 
Spanish  cruisers  were  old-fashioned,  and  it  is  also 


14  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

true  that  the  Commodore  did  not  have  a  single 
armored  vessel  in  his  squadron,  not  even  an 
armored  cruiser.  There  is  no  better  place,  too, 
in  which  to  mention  another  fact,  this:  that  we 
were  moving  down  on  the  enemy's  base ;  that  our 
defeat  meant  being  six  thousand  miles  away  from 
supplies  or  succor;  while  to  the  Spaniards  defeat 
meant  an  easy  falling  back  on  a  port  of  relief.  I 
say  this  here  because  since  the  victory  at  Manila 
I  have  seen  a  number  of  criticisms  whose  tenor 
has  been  to  minify  the  victory  on  the  ground  of 
the  disparity  between  the  fighting  machines.  It  is 
true  again  that  the  president's  order  to  the  Com 
modore  was  to  "capture  or  destroy''  the  Spanish 
fleet,  but  I  venture  to  say  that  not  even  the  most 
sanguine  Jacky  of  ours  ever  anticipated  a 
complete  annihiliation  of  the  enemy,  or  that  we 
should  come  out  of  it  scatheless.  What  I  wish 
to  make  clear  is  that  while  we  were  going  into 
battle  with  what  may  be  called  a  jaunty  swift 
ness,  it  was  not  for  one  moment  imagined  that 
we  would  come  out  of  it  as  jauntily.  We  thought 
we  were  in  for  a  hard  fight,  and  as  the  factors  in 
the  fight  piled  up  in  numbers  and  gravity  that 
impression  became  all  the  stronger. 

As  soon  as  we  sighted  the  Philippine  coast  the 
Boston,  Baltimore,  and  Concord  went  ahead  on 
scout  duty.  First  of  all  they  looked  in  at 


CAPT.    D.     B.     HODGSDON 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  15 

Bolinao  Bay,  but  no  trace  of  the  Spanish  fleet 
was  to  be  found  there.  Subig  Bay,  some  thirty 
miles  from  Manila,  was  next  approached.  This 
was  cautiously  done,  for  the  latest  reports 
brought  by  Williams  were  that  Admiral  Monto jo, 
commanding  Spain's  Asiatic  fleet,  had  planned  i 
to  do  us  battle  there. 

The  only  craft  found  at  Subig  Bay,  however, 
were  two  small  schooners,  coasters,  with  two  of 
the  most  ludicrously  ignorant  crews  it  has  ever 
been  my  fortune  to  meet.  They  did  not  know 
of  the  existence  of  any  Spanish  fleet;  they  did 
not  even  know  where  Manila  was,  and  I  believe 
that  had  the  cross-questioning  been  put  further 
they  would  have  declared  they  did  not  know 
where  the  Philippines  were.  With  the  Spanish 
fleet  at  neither  Bolinao  nor  Subig  it  became 
evident  that  Montojo  had  changed  his  mind  and 
had  determined  to  make  Manila  Bay  the  fighting 
ground.  When  the  result  of  the  scouting  was 
reported  to  the  Commodore  he  said:  "Very  well 
then,  Manila  it  must  be." 

It  was  six  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  Saturday, 
April  30,  when  we  left  Subig  Bay — a  hot,  moist 
evening — and  as  we  steamed  slowly  down  the 
coast  the  sun  dropped  into  the  sea  like  a  copper 
ball.  But  instead  of  the  quick-coming  tropical 
night  there  was  a  great  yellow  moon  hung  in  the 


16  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

sky.  Orders  were  signaled  along  the  fleet  to 
slow  down  until  the  moon  set,  and  when  she  did 
so  all  lights  in  the  fleet  were  guarded,  the  men 
were  called  to  quarters,  and  everything  was 
ready  for  slipping  into  Manila  Bay. 

A  description  of  the  fight  that  was  about  to 
come  so  thoroughly  involves  a  description  of  the 
setting  in  which  the  great  sea  tragedy  was  to  be 
acted  out,  that  it  will  be  necessary  here  to  set 
down  as  plainly  as  possible  just  what  Manila  Bay 
is  like,  together  with  some  necessary  and  perti 
nent  facts  concerning  the  Philippines. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  17 


CHAPTER  H. 

THE   SCENE    OF    THE   TRAGEDY. 

IF  you  were  in  the  basket  of  a  war  balloon  and 
were  to  look  down  on  the  Bay  of  Manila  you  would 
see  that  it  is  a  land-locked  or  pear-shaped  body 
of  water,  with  the  stem  end  pointing  toward  the 
sea.  It  lies  about  square  with  the  compass,  being 
thirty  miles  from  north  to  south  and  twenty-five 
miles  from  east  to  west.  At  each  side  of  the  en 
trance  to  the  bay  rise  steep  volcanic  mountains 
covered  with  dense  foliage,  and  which  constitute 
the  two  ends  of  the  coast  range  of  mountains. 
On  the  in-shore  side,  these  mountains  slope  down 
to  a  plain  which  sweeps  all  round  the  upper  part 
of  the  bay.  On  the  flattest  part  of  this  plain  and 
directly  opposite  the  entrance  to  the  bay,  from 
which  it  is  situated  about  twenty-six  miles,  lies 
the  city  of  Manila. 

Manila  has  been  called  the  Venice  of  the  East 
ern  Seas,  its  Venetian  title  being  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  traversed  by  a  number  of  waterways, 
the  largest  of  which  is  the  Pasig  River,  which  may 
be  called  a  sort  of  Grand  Canal.  The  waterways 


18  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

cut  up  the  whole  extent  of  the  city  into  a  number 
of  islands,  while  the  Pasig  is  the  dividing  line 
between  Old  and  New  Manila,  the  latter  city 
being  locally  known  as  Binondo.  When  I  was 
first  there,  which  was  soon  after  the  great  earth 
quake  of  1880,  the  old  town  was  strewn  with 
ruins,  but  these  have  been  leisurely  cleared  away, 
and  the  place,  except  for  the  war  preparations, 
has  resumed  its  normal  aspect. 

Old  Manila  is  one  of  the  most  nearly  perfect 
examples  of  an  Hispano -Oriental  walled  city  that 
I  have  ever  seen.  It  is  surrounded  by  mediaeval, 
moss-covered  fortifications  which  are  as  pictur 
esque  as  they  are  useless  from  the  standpoint  of 
modern  warfare.  On  the  parapets  of  these  forti 
fications  still  stand,  I  am  told,  the  glistening 
array  of  harmless  old  smooth-bores  that  have 
been  there  for  hundreds  of  years. 

In  the  walls  are  a  number  of  gates,  each  with 
its  drawbridge  and  porticullis;  all  amply  able  to 
withstand  the  advance  of  an  army  of  bowmen, 
but  all  absolutely  worthless  against  a  single 
rifled  cannon.  The  principal  gate  to  the  old 
fortifications  is  the  Entrada,  and  before  it  and 
along  the  city  walls  stretches  the  Luneta,  a  well 
laid  out  fashionable  promenade,  where  military 
bands  play,  or  used  to  play,  two  or  three  times 
a  week.  Across  the  city  stretches  a  broad  ave- 


MANILA,  THE  CAPITAL,  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES,    ITS  STREETS  AND  SUBURI 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  19 

nue  named  Legazbi,  after  the  lieutenant  of  the 
great  navigator  Magellan,  who  founded  Manila 
in  1571. 

It  is  always  hot  in  Manila.  There  are  varying 
degrees  of  heat,  it  is  true,  but  at  the  lowest  de 
gree  of  temperature  it  is  hot — hot  and  moist. 
The  sheet-iron  roofs  and  the  bare  backs  of  the 
natives  glistening  in  the  sun  make  it  look  hotter. 
When  the  city  was  built  its  founders  bore  in  lov 
ing  minds  the  narrow  streets  of  the  old  Iberian 
towns,  and  so  Manila's  streets  are  narrow  and 
stuffy;  and  as  the  sidewalks  are  still  narrower 
and  built  for  one,  and  as  it  is  a  constant  jostle  to 
get  along  them,  they  are  stuffier  even  than  the 
streets. 

The  houses  are  low  and  generally  plasterless, 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  interior  lining  of  the 
rooms  is  cloth,  the  rending  of  this  by  the  con 
stantly  occurring  earthquakes  being  unpleasant  to 
the  ear,  it  is  true,  but  not  so  uncomfortable  or 
dangerous  to  the  occupants  as  the  falling  of  slabs 
of  plaster.  Most  of  the  windows  in  the  old  town 
are  not  windows  at  all,  but  simply  holes  in  the 
walls  filled  with  a  sliding  shutter  in  which  are 
set  thin,  translucent  sea-shells,  so  that  through 
them  a  dim  and  slightly  opalescent  light  filters 
in. 

So  deadly  flat  are  the  sandy  isles  on  which  Ma- 


20  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

nila  is  built  that  it  is  scarcely  more  than  a  foot 
above  high  water.  The  water  in  the  moats  is  so 
sluggish  that  it  is  little  better  than  a  mass  of 
weeds,  and  as  to  drainage,  there  is  strong  evi 
dence  to  the  senses  that  there  is  none.  All  the 
houses  are  damp,  so  damp  indeed  that  no  one 
thinks  of  sleeping  on  the  ground  floor.  Most  of 
the  living  is  done  in  the  second  story,  while  in 
the  first  or  ground  floor  the  Philippine  keeps  his 
store  or  his  stable.  Upstairs  live  the  house 
snakes  which  are  to  Manila  what  the  dogs  are  to 
Constantinople,  the  unlicensed  scavengers  of  the 
city.  They  are  quite  harmless  to  mankind,  al 
though  it  takes  some  time  for  the  stranger  to 
become  accustomed  to  the  eight  or  nine  feet  of 
reptile,  wriggling  after  the  rats,  which  are  the 
snakes'  legitimate  supply  and  one  of  the  many 
pests  of  Manila.  So  many  and  so  fierce  are  these 
rats  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  snakes  Manila 
would  be  overrun  by  them  and  would  be  as  un 
inhabitable  as  Hamelin. 

There  are  three  things  that  every  Philippine 
does — play  some  instrument,  smoke,  and  keep 
game  roosters.  Of  all  these  three  characteristics 
that  which  struck  me  most  was  his  ability  as  a 
musician.  I  have  rarely  heard  better  music  than 
that  of  the  native  bands,  and  I  never  saw  a  Ma 
nila  man  who  could  not  play  some  sort  of  instru- 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  21 

ment  and  play  it  well.  In  the  piping  times  of 
peace,  when  I  was  last  there,  the  orchestra  to  the 
grand  opera  was  a  native  one,  while  the  audiences 
were  far  more  appreciative,  or  at  least  more  at 
tentive  than  those  of  New  York.  The  opera 
began  at  nine  o'clock  and  was  carried  on  in  an 
easy,  unhurried  fashion  until  about  two  or  three 
in  the  morning,  with  good  long  intervals  be 
tween  the  acts,  long  enough  for  a  nice  little 
light  supper. 

There  is  no  opera  in  Manila  now  though,  and 
for  two  years  the  Philippines  have  been  the 
theater  of  some  of  the  most  horrifying  tragedies 
that  have  ever  marked  Spain's  bloody  rule  of  her 
colonies.  To  Spain  the  natives  of  the  Phil 
ippines  have  been  but  one  thing — tax-producers. 
It  has  been  the  land  of  promise  and  profit  for 
every  greedy,  scoundrelly  official,  and  what  little 
has  been  left  to  the  natives  after  the  squeezing 
process  of  the  state  official  has  been  ground  and 
pulverized  out  of  them  by  the  greedy  churchman. 
It  is  against  the  churchman,  in  fact,  that  the 
anger  of  the  Philippine  has  most  blazed  out,  and 
the  poverty  stricken  village  of  thatched  huts 
squatting  around  the  ponderous  convent  or 
church,  and  the  ragged,  hunger-famished  peas 
ant  elbowed  out  of  the  way  by  the  sleek,  paunchy 
padres  have  been  object  lessons  which  served 
to  keep  that  anger  hot. 


22  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

It  was  in  August,  1896,  that  the  anger  and  de 
spair  of  the  peasant  bore  its  worst  fruit.  There 
were  insurrections  all  over  the  islands  and  while 
the  troops  were  in  the  south  of  Luzon  the  insur 
gents  gathered  around  Manila  with  the  purpose 
of  sacking  it.  A  leader  was  wanted,  however, 
the  troops  were  hurriedly  called  back,  and 
Spain's  heavy  hand  closed  on  the  rebels.  A 
hundred  of  them  were  thrown  into  a  small  dun 
geon  in  an  old  fort  near  the  river,  and  when  the 
door  was  opened  next  morning  sixty  of  them 
were  dead.  Instead  of  stopping  the  revolt  this 
Black  Hole  incident  only  seemed  to  give  it  new 
fury. 

The  revolution  spread,  and  while  groups  of  in 
surgents  have  been  shot  down  almost  every  week 
to  the  music  of  the  bands  the  insurgents  have 
retaliated  by  cutting  the  priests  to  pieces.  A 
dragging  war  has  been  carried  on  in  the  Philip 
pines  on  very  nearly  the  same  lines  as  that  car 
ried  on  in  Cuba.  White  troops  have  been  pitted 
against  the  natives,  and  while  there  have  been 
few  engagements,  the  white  troops  have  been 
decimated  by  disease  and  sudden  onslaught, 
while  the  natives  are  as  strong  as  ever  behind  the 
impregnable  intrenchments  of  climate  and  moun 
tain  jungle. 

Along  the  northern  shore  of  the  Pasig  and  im- 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  23 

mediately  opposite  the  old  city  are  the  hotels  and 
large  commercial  warehouses  and  the  bazaar  oc 
cupied  by  the  Chinese  and  called  the  Escolta, 
from  which  central  point  the  natives'  dwellings 
stretch  up  and  down  the  river  between  its  two 
bridges.  Next  comes  Binondo  proper,  which  is 
the  great  business  quarter,  and  next  up  the  river 
lies  San  Miguel,  which  is  the  fashionable  quarter 
where  the  rich  Spaniards  and  foreigners  have 
their  residences.  Here,  too,  are  the  new  abodes 
of  the  Governor-General  and  admiral  of  the  fleet 
who  used  to  reside  in  the  old  walled  city.  Here, 
too,  are  the  great  modern  churches,  the  fine  hos 
pital  of  St.  Lazarus,  the  military  storehouse  and 
the  famous  cigar  factory  where  some  ten  thou 
sand  women  were  daily  employed  making  "Ma 
nilas." 

Back  of  these  towns  or  quarters,  which  lie 
along  the  river  front,  are  the  suburbs.  There 
are  many  pleasant  gardens  and  towering  build 
ings,  but  the  whole  is  flat  and  unhealthy.  The 
population,  which  is  estimated  at  anything  from 
one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  to  three  hun 
dred  thousand,  contains  only  about  five  thousand 
Spaniards,  the  rest  being  made  up  of  every  shade 
and  variety  of  natives  and  some  twenty -five  thou 
sand  Chinese.  The  natural  drawbacks  of  Manila 
have  not  been  combated  any  more  than  its  natural 


24  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

advantages  have  been  improved,  and  Manila  in 
strong  Anglo-Saxon  hands  would  not  only  con 
tinue  to  be  the  most  important  port  in  this  part 
of  the  globe,  but  would  be  decently  healthy  and 
positively  clean. 

As  a  trade  center  Manila  ranks  with  Calcutta 
and  Batavia,  and  as  the  chief  port  of  the  Philip 
pine  Islands  all  their  productions  flow  to  it,  and 
its  harbor  is  visited  all  the  year  round  by  vessels 
from  every  nation  under  the  sun.  What  Manila 
exports  reads  like  a  catalogue  of  tropical  produc 
tions,  and  as  the  foreign  craft  sail  from  it  they 
are  laden  down  with  sugar,  tobacco,  indigo, 
hemp,  gold-dust,  bird's-nests,  coffee,  mats,  hides, 
hats,  tortoise  shells,  cigars,  cotton  and  rice. 
Outside  of  its  natural  products  Manila  furnishes 
little  other  manufactures  than  cheroots  and  cord 
age,  except  that  in  small  quantities  it  produces 
beautiful  fabrics  known  as  pinas,  woven  from  the 
fibers  of  the  pineapple  leaf  and  exquisitely  em 
broidered,  lovely  mats  and  rich  cloths  of  the 
abaca  filament. 

The  Philippine  Islands  are  indeed  the  treasure 
house  of  the  Malay  Archipelago.  While  many 
of  the  twelve  hundred  islands  are  little  more 
than  volcanic  points  in  the  sea,  Luzon,  Min 
danao,  Samar,  Panay,  Negros  and  Palawan  are  so 
large  that  most  of  their  interior  regions  are  still 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  25 

unknown  lands.  Up  and  down  the  islands  runs 
a  great  chain  of  mountains,  with  a  general  trend 
of  north  and  south  and  an  extreme  height  of  six 
thousand  feet.  In  those  mountains  lie  unex 
plored  riches  of  gold,  copper,  iron,  lead,  mercury, 
sulphur  and  coal.  The  coasts  of  most  of  the 
islands  are  deeply  indented  by  the  sea,  rivers  are 
abundant  and  there  are  excellent  harbors  galore. 

From  their  position  the  Philippines  lie  within 
the  range  of  the  Monsoons,  and  violent  hurri 
canes  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  From  May  to 
September  the  west  coasts  of  the  archipelago  are 
deluged  with  rain,  while  the  October  Monsoon 
brings  rain  to  the  east  coast. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  malaria  and  fever  are 
common,  but  there  are  plenty  of  low,  river  bot 
tom  lands  in  the  Southern  States  that  are  quite  as 
unhealthy  as  the  Philippines,  while  in  the  inte 
rior  of  the  islands  the  climate  is  as  balmy  and 
pure  as  in  Kentucky.  Even  under  Spanish 
mismanagement  the  exports  of  the  Philippines 
amount  roundly  to  sixteen  million  dollars  an 
nually,  while  the  outside  world  sends  to  them 
cottons,  machinery,  linens,  coal,  iron,  earthen 
ware,  hardware  and  woolens  to  about  as  much. 
The  area  of  the  Philippines  is  something  like 
seventy-seven  thousand  square  miles,  or  a  trifle 
over  that  of  the  New  England  States,  while  the 


26  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

population  has  been  estimated  at  eight  millions. 
All  this,  however,  is  estimated  because  the  Span 
iards,  notwithstanding  their  centuries  of  occupa 
tion,  have  been  as  limited  in  their  explorations 
of  the  group  as  they  have  been  in  their  schemes 
of  drainage  in  Manila.  In  a  word,  the  Philip 
pines  stand  as  an  unexplored  potentiality  whose 
products,  commerce,  and  strategic  value  are 
almost  limitless. 

Ten  miles  nearer  the  entrance  to  the  Bay  of 
Manila  lies  the  town  of  Cavite,  with  a  popula 
tion  of  five  thousand  and  a  garrison  of  six  hun 
dred.  It  is,  or  was,  the  military  post  and 
marine  arsenal  of  Manila  and  of  the  Spanish 
Orient.  Vessels  were  built  and  repaired  there. 
It  has  a  dock  for  gunboats  and  many  private 
slips.  It  possesses  a  harbor  formed  by  a  spit 
which  projects  from  the  shore  like  a  finger  point 
ing  toward  Manila.  It  is  strongly  fortified,  its 
fortresses  mounting  many  guns,  and  although 
most  of  them  were  of  an  ancient  type,  many 
others  of  them  were  modern,  and  we  were  in 
formed  that  at  least  two  ten-inch  guns  had  been 
taken  from  the  war  ships  and  placed  in  one  of 
the  shore  batteries.  Opposite  the  fort  on  the 
spit  there  was  a  large  mortar  battery  on  the  main 
land,  with  a  good  range  across  the  harbor  and 
toward  the  entrance  of  the  bay. 


"With  Dewey  at  Manila.  27 

Manila  itself  is  more  strongly  protected  on 
the  land  side  than  on  the  water  front.  The 
cordon  of  land  batteries,  put  up  to  prevent  at 
tacks  by  the  insurgent  forces  which  had  been 
hovering  about  the  city  ready  to  pounce  upon  it 
when  the  opportunity  offered,  is,  I  should  think, 
quite  an  effective  one,  but,  with  the  exception 
of  a  Krupp  battery  on  the  mole  known  as  the 
Luneta  fort,  there  was  nothing  to  fear  from 
Manila. 

Blocking  the  entrance  to  the  bay,  or  rather 
dividing  it  into  three  channels,  are  two  islands, 
Corregidor  and  Caballo  or  Kulocabilla.  Corregidor 
is  six  hundred  and  forty  feet  high,  while  Caballo 
is  four  hundred  and  twenty.  There  is  a  lighthouse 
on  each  island,  and  we  had  heard  that  both  were 
strongly  fortified  with  modern  guns.  Across 
from  Corregidor  lies  San  Jose  point  with,  it  was 
understood,  a  shore  battery  which  commanded 
that  channel;  while  across  from  Caballo  Island  is 
Libonis  Point,  also,  we  understood,  heavily 
guarded  with  shore  batteries.  In  fact,  while  we 
were  at  Hong  Kong  we  had  seen  sundry  dis 
patches  from  Madrid  in  the  Hong  Kong  Times 
which  stated  that  Manila  was  impregnable.  It 
was  asserted  that  there  were  forts,  terrible  forts, 
on  every  point  along  the  entrance,  that  the  bay 
shore  fairly  bristled  with  Krupp  guns,  and  that 


28  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

the  bombardment  of  the  defenses  would  be  an 
impossibility,  owing  to  the  range  and  power  of 
the  ordnance  which  had  been  emplaced  at  every 
commanding  point.  More  than  this,  we  learned 
through  the  same  medium  that  the  entrance  to 
Manila  Bay  was  completely  mined,  and  that  the 
passage  of  any  channel  would  result  in  every 
ship  of  the  fleet  being  blown  into  eternity.  It 
was  stated,  moreover,  that  all  the  forts  were 
heavily  garrisoned,  and  that  the  troops  in  Manila 
numbered  from  seven  to  ten  thousand. 

Corregidor,  which  is  the  principal  island,  lies 
two  miles  only  from  the  east  shore  of  the  main 
land,  the  channel  being  known  as  the  Boca 
Grande.  The  channel  between  Caballo  Island 
and  the  mainland  is  about  three  miles  across, 
about  twenty  fathoms  deep,  and  is  called  the 
Boca  Chica.  The  middle  channel,  that  between 
the  two  islands,  is  about  three  thousand  four 
hundred  feet  wide,  and  perhaps  seven  fathoms 
deep.  The  winds  of  the  entrance  are  always 
fresh  and  the  tide  always  strong. 

Lastly,  we  knew,  with  a  measurable  degree  of 
certainty,  that  if  the  Spanish  fleet  were  within, 
it  would  be  found  lying  under  the  forts  of 
Cavite. 

This,  therefore,  was  the  problem  which  the 
Commodore  had  to  face:  The  selection  of  his 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  29 

channel,  the  avoidance  of  mines,  the  encounter 
•with  the  Spanish  fleet  and  its  protecting  forts, 
and  running  the  gauntlet  of  the  shore  batteries. 
It  was  with  the  perfect  cognizance  of  all  these 
matters  that  the  battle  line  was  formed  and  the 
signal  given  to  steam  through  the  Boca  Grande. 


30  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

RUNNING    THE    GAUNTLET. 

WHEN  we  arrived  off  Subig  Bay  on  the  after 
noon  of  Saturday,  April  30,  the  Commodore 
called  the  commanding  officers  of  the  ships  over 
to  his  cabin  and  outlined  to  them  his  plan  of 
attack  as  far  as  he  then  knew  it.  The  men  in  the 
Commodore's  council  of  war  were  these:  From 
the  Olympia,  Captain  Charles  V.  Gridley;  from 
the  Raleigh,  Captain  Joseph  B.  Coghlan ;  from  the 
Boston,  Captain  Frank  Wildes;  from  the  Balti 
more,  Captain  Nehemiah  M.  Dyer;  from  the 
Concord,  Commander  Asa  Walker;  from  the 
Petrel,  Captain  E.  P.  Wood;  from  the  McCul- 
loch,  Captain  D.  B.  Hodgson. 

These  men  were  the  men  to  whom  the  glory  of 
the  fight  is  due  as  leaders;  and  these  are  the 
leaders  who  say  that  the  glory  of  the  fight  is  due 
the  men. 

He  told  them  he  had  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Spaniards  were  in  Manila  Bay 
and  that  his  purpose  was  to  carry  out  the  Presi 
dent's  instructions  and  destroy  their  fleet.  We 


With  Dewey  at  Manilla.  31 

•were  told  that  the  first  thing  was  to  slip  into  the 
bay  past  the  guarding  forts  under  cover  of  night 
and  as  soon  as  daylight  came  and  the  exact  loca 
tion  of  the  fleet  was  discovered  to  "go  for  it." 
It  was  decided  to  use  the  Boca  Grande  or  south 
ern  passage  for  entrance  and  if  possible  to  pass 
the  shore  forts  without  drawing  their  fire. 

Sunday  morning  came  on  still  and  hot,  and  as 
each  captain  was  carried  back  to  his  ship  we 
could  hear  the  chuck,  chuck  of  the  different 
launches  or  the  dip  of  the  gigs'  crews,  each  one 
it  seemed  to  us  making  noise  enough  to  rouse 
the  whole  coast  of  Luzon.  At  last  the  moon  set 
and  the  fleet  steamed  slowly  into  line  for 
entering  the  harbor.  First  went  the  flagship 
Olympia,  then  the  Baltimore,  then  the  Raleigh, 
next  the  Petrel,  following  her  the  Concord,  and 
last  the  Boston.  After  the  fighting  fleet  came 
the  supply  ships,  Nanshan  and  Zafiro,  convoyed 
by  the  McCulloch. 

As  we  rounded  out  beyond  the  last  point  be 
fore  reaching  the  entrance  we  saw  the  lights  of 
the  great  cone  of  Corregidor  burning  bright  and 
still,  but  saw  nothing  in  the  shape  of  a  flash 
light.  Every  man  was  called  up  and  ordered  to 
wash  and  take  a  cup  of  coffee.  While  this  light 
and  early  refreshment  was  being  served  all  the 
ships'  lights  were  extinguished,  except  those  on 


32  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

the  taffrail  and  these  were  hooded.  So  we  crept 
along,  until  we  caine  into  the  channel  moving  in 
single  file  and  without  a  sound  on  board,  except 
a  few  quiet  orders  and  the  throb  of  the  engines 
and  kick  of  the  screws. 

In  that  still  air  it  seemed  absolutely  impossible 
for  us  to  escape  the  attention  of  the  entrance 
forts,  yet  it  is  the  fact  that  the  Olympia,  Balti 
more,  Raleigh,  Petrel,  Concord  and  Boston 
passed  without  even  the  challenge  of  a  hail.  The 
batteries  of  Corregidor  and  Caballo,  were 
mute,  although  the  flagship  passed  well  in  range 
with  the  Baltimore  following  still  closer  inshore. 
I  can  scarcely  believe  it  possible  that  the  garri 
sons  were  at  their  posts  and  awake,  for  again  it 
seemed  to  us  that  surely  a  fleet  stealing  into 
an  enemy's  bay  never  made  so  much  noise  as  we 
did.  Again,  too,  the  fact  remains  that  not  a 
yell  or  shot  greeted  us,  and  we  would  all  have 
been  inside — squadron,  supply  ships  and  con 
voy — without  the  Spanish  fleet  receiving  the 
faintest  intimation  of  our  approach  if  it  had  not 
been  for  some  enthusiastic  fireman  on  board  the 
McCulloch.  Possibly  her  commander  had  some 
idea  that  he  was  running  behind  and  told  the 
engineer  to  put  on  a  little  more  steam.  At  any 
rate  the  men  at  the  boilers  got  the  idea  that  this 
was  needed  and,  throwing  open  the  furnace  doors, 


CAPT.     CHARLKS     V.     G  RIDLEY 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  33 

some  fellow  ladled  in  a  few  shovelfulls  of  nice 
soft  coal.  Up  from  the  smokestack  of  the  cutter 
went  a  great  shower  of  sparks. 

"Well,"  said  a  lieutenant  who  stood  beside 
me,  "if  some  one  don't  see  that,  the  whole  island 
must  be  asleep." 

Some  one  evidently  did,  but  even  then  the  an 
swer  did  not  come  instantly,  for  some  minutes 
elapsed  before  out  of  the  west  there  came  a  bugle 
call,  then  a  flash  and  then  the  rolling  boom  of  a 
great  gun.  Between  the  flash  and  the  report 
there  should  have  been  the  drop  somewhere  of 
the  shot  that  went  with  them,  but  nobody  in  the 
fleet,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  ever 
saw  or  heard  anything  to  prove  that  Spain's  first 
gun  in  the  battle  of  Manila  Bay  fired  anything 
more  than  a  blank  cartridge. 

Twice  more  the  battery  spoke  and  somewhere 
astern  of  the  McCulloch  there  was  a  great  flash 
ing  of  water,  but  whether  a  wave  broke,  a  fish 
jumped,  or  a  shot  struck,  I  cannot  say.  Up  to 
the  third  shot  with  its  answering  splash  no  reply 
had  come  from  our  fleet,  but  with  the  third  shot, 
and  sounding  almost  like  its  echo,  there  came  a 
crack  from  the  Concord,  and  we  knew  that  our 
first  shot  had  gone  out  in  the  shape  of  a  four- 
inch  shell.  In  what  particular  part  of  the  fort 
that  shot  hit  I  am  not  able  to  say,  but  that  it  did 


34:  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

hit  T  have  no  doubt  for  from  the  shore  «anie  the 
sound  of  a  plunk  and  smash,  followed  by  a  cry. 
Then  still  further  back  of  us  the  Boston  barked 
yet  louder  and  sent  in  an  eight-inch  shell,  and 
still  further  to  the  rear  the  McCulloch,  having 
started  the  fuss,  went  snapping  into  it  with  a  few 
of  her  four-pounders,, 

The  batteries  kept  on  flashing  and  booming  a 
few  minutes  longer  and  then  became  as  silent  as 
they  were  before  we  had  steamed  up.  Whether 
the  gunners  went  back  to  bed  or  no  will  have  to 
be  set  down  as  an  historical  doubt,  but  so  far  as 
being  an  opposing  force  the  shore  garrisons — 
these  terrible  fortresses,  bristling  with  Krupps 
of  which  we  had  heard  so  much,  might  have 
been  so  many  children's  sand  forts  at  Coney 
Island  set  up  to  keep  out  the  Atlantic. 

There  remained  of  course  the  torpedoes  and 
mines  with  which  the  entrance  was  strewn,  and 
Admiral  Montojo's  fleet  rushing  out  to  meet  us. 
What  the  sensations  of  the  other  fellows  were 
about  the  mines  I  did  not  know  then,  but  I  found 
afterward,  when  making  a  poll  of  sensations, 
that  the  unanimous  feeling  was  that  if  mines 
were  there  they  were,  and  that  was  all  there  was 
about  it.  The  dreadful  and  unexpected  did  not 
happen.  There  was  no  shaking  up  of  the  foun 
tains  of  the  vasty  deep,  no  great  ship  rose  bodily 


"With  Dewey  at  Manila.  35 

in  the  air  and  came  down  a  shattered  mass  of 
timbers,  steel  and  men.  The  mines  proved  as 
innocuous  as  the  shore  batteries. 

There  remained  then  the  Spanish  fleet  "rush 
ing  out  to  meet  us."  But  out  of  the  darkness 
came  the  throb  of  no  enemy's  engine,  no  flash 
ing  signal  to  halt,  not  even  a  scurrying  scout. 

Very  quietly,  that  is,  as  quietly  as  nine 
steamers  can  move,  we  went  ahead  and  as  soon  as 
we  had  passed  the  batteries  at  the  harbor  mouth 
we  slowed  down  until  it  seemed  as  though  we 
were  almost  at  a  standstill.  The  Commodore  was 
talking  in  an  undertone  to  the  rebel  Philippine 
who  was  acting  as  pilot;  I  could  see  the  figures  of 
the  men  standing  silently  at  their  posts  up  and 
down  the  ship ;  and  looking  over  her  sides  I  could 
distinguish  no  line  of  demarkation  between  the 
dull  gray  of  the  vessels  and  the  dark  waters  of  the 
bay  through  which  we  were  so  slowly  slipping. 

We  all  came  to  the  conclusion  afterward  that 
this  leisurely  advance  through  the  quarter  light 
of  the  dawn  was  the  most  trying  period  in  the 
whole  affair.  The  snapping  interchange  of  com 
pliments  between  the  forts  and  the  Concord, 
Boston  and  McCulloch  had  served  as  a  little 
fillip,  although  we  on  the  first  four  ships  had 
had  no  part  in  that,  but  this  creeping,  creeping, 
creeping  with  invisible  mines  below  us  and  an 


36  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

invisible  fleet  ahead  was  a  test  out  of  which  no 
man  came  without  a  sigh  of  relief.  It  is  a  hard 
thing  to  whisper  an  order,  I  know,  so  perhaps  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  there  should  have 
been  a  break,  or  vibration  in  the  men's  voices  as 
they  passed  the  necessary  word  from  mouth  to 
mouth.  We  were  all  keyed  up,  but  it  was  not 
long  before  the  fighting  string  in  every  man's 
heart  was  twanging  and  singing  like  that  of  a 
taut  bow. 

As  is  the  fashion  of  nature  in  these  parts  the 
dawn  turned  as  suddenly  into  day  as  though  a 
curtain  had  been  torn  down  from  the  sunlight, 
and  there  right  ahead  of  us  lay  the  Spanish  fleet 
tucked  up  under  the  forts  of  Cavite ;  the  scene 
jumping  as  suddenly  into  vision  as  though  it  had 
been  a  quick  stage-setting  in  a  theater  done  in 
the  dark  and  shown  in  the  flashing  up  of  every 
light  in  the  house.  The  fleets  at  last  had  met, 
and  here  it  is  that  the  fighting  forces  must  be 
plainly  marshaled  for  the  reader's  clear  under 
standing  of  what  is  to  follow. 

Commodore  Dewey 's  fleet  consisted  of  seven 
vessels  exclusive  of  the  transports. 

His  flagship,  the  cruiser  Olympia,  was  launched 
in  San  Francisco  in  1892.  She  is  a  twin  screw 
steamer  of  steel  with  two  covered  barbettes  and 
two  military  masts.  She  is  three  hundred  and 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  37 

forty  feet  long,  has  a  beam  of  fifty -three  feet  and 
a  mean  draft  of  twenty-one  feet  six  inches.  Her 
tonnage  is  five  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
seventy  tons,  her  coal-carrying  capacity  is  one 
thousand  three  hundred  tons  and  her  speed  is 
twenty-one  and  a  half  knots.  Her  armor  consists 
of  steel  deck  plates,  steel-covered  barbettes, 
hoods  and  gun  shields,  and  two  conning  towers. 
She  is  also  protected  with  a  cellulose  belt  thirty- 
three  inches  thick  and  eight  feet  broad.  Her 
armament  includes  four  eight-inch  breech  load 
ers,  ten  five-inch  quick-firing  guns,  fourteen  six- 
pounder  quick-fire  guns,  six  one-pound  quick- 
fire  guns,  four  gatlings  and  six  torpedo  tubes. 
She  carries  four  hundred  and  sixty-six  men  and 
belongs  to  the  second  class  of  protected  cruisers. 
The  Baltimore  was  launched  in  Philadelphia 
in  1888.  She  also  is  a  protected  cruiser  of  the 
second  class,  is  built  of  steel,  has  twin  screws 
and  two  military  tops.  She  is  three  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  feet  six  inches  long,  forty-eight 
feet  six  inches  in  beam,  has  a  mean  draft  of  nine 
teen  feet  six  inches,  a  tonnage  of  four  thousand 
six  hundred  tons  and  a  speed  of  twenty  knots. 
Her  protection  consists  of  steel  deck  plates, 
shields  for  all  the  guns  and  conning  tower.  Her 
armament  consists  of  four  eight-inch  breech 
loaders,  six  six-inch  breech  loaders,  two  six- 


38  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

pound  rapid  firers,  two  three-pound  rapid  firers, 
two  one-pound  rapid  firers,  four  one-pound  re 
volving  cannon,  two  gatling  guns,  and  five  tor 
pedo  tubes.  She  carries  a  crew  of  three  hundred 
and  ninety-five  men. 

The  Boston,  also  a  second  class  protected 
cruiser,  was  launched  in  1884.  She  is  a  steel 
vessel  of  three  thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
nine  tons,  with  a  single  screw.  Her  length  is 
two  hundred  and  seventy  feet  three  inches,  beam 
forty-two  feet  and  mean  draft  seventeen  feet. 
Her  speed  is  fifteen  and  a  half  knots.  Her  deck 
is  partially  protected  and  she  carries  two  eight- 
inch  breech  loaders,  six  six-inch  breech  loaders, 
two  six-pound,  two  three-pound,  and  two  one- 
pound  rapid-fire  guns,  two  three-pound  revolving 
cannon  and  two  gatlings.  Her  crew  consists  of 
two  hundred  and  seventy-two  men. 

The  Raleigh  was  launched  at  Norfolk  in  1892. 
She  is  a  steel  cruiser  of  the  second  class  with 
twin  screws  and  military  tops.  She  is  three 
hundred  feet  long,  forty-two  feet  in  beam,  eight 
een  feet  draft,  three  thousand  one  hundred  and 
eighty -three  tons  of  tonnage  and  a  speed  of  nine 
teen  knots.  Her  deck  is  protected  with  armor, 
she  carries  a  cellulose  belt,  an  armored  conning 
tower  and  steel  sponsons.  She  carries  one  six- 
inch  rapid-fire  gun,  on  her  forecastle,  ten  five- 


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With  Dewey  at  Manila.  39 

inch  rapid-firing  guns,  two  on  the  poop  and  four 
on  each  side  of  the  gun-deck  in  sponsons;  eight 
six-pound  and  four  one-pound  rapid-fire  guns, 
two  gatlings  and  six  torpedo  tubes.  Her  crew 
numbers  two  hundred  and  ninety-five. 

The  Concord  is  a  third-class  cruiser,  really  a 
gunboat,  of  one  thousand  seven  hundred  tons, 
with  twin  screws,  length  of  two  hundred  and 
thirty  feet,  beam  of  thirty-six  feet,  draft  of  four 
teen  feet  and  can  make  seventeen  knots.  Her 
deck  and  conning  tower  are  protected  with  light 
armor.  She  carries  six  six-inch  guns,  two  six- 
pound,  two  three-pound,  and  one  one-pound 
rapid-fire  guns,  two  two-pound  revolving  cannon, 
two  gatlings  and  two  torpedo  tubes.  She  has  a 
crew  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men. 

The  Petrel  is  a  gunboat  of  eight  hundred  tons. 
She  was  launched  in  Baltimore  in  1888,  is  one 
hundred  and  seventy-six  feet  long,  thirty-one 
feet  beam,  eleven  feet  seven  inches  in  draft  and 
makes  13.7  knots  an  hour.  Her  deck  and  six- 
inch  guns  are  protected  with  armor.  She  carries 
four  six-inch  guns,  two  three-pound  and  one 
one-pound  rapid-fire  guns,  two  one-pound  revolv 
ing  cannon  and  two  gatlings.  Her  crew  is  one 
hundred  men. 

The  McCulloch  is  a  revenue  cutter  of  one  thou 
sand  five  hundred  tons,  built  of  steel  and  armed 


40  With  Dewey  at  Manila, 

•with  four  four-inch  guns.  She  has  a  speed  of 
fourteen  knots  an  hour  and  carries  a  force  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty  men. 

Admiral  Montojo's  fleet  consisted  of  twelve 
vessels.  The  Reina  Cristina,  the  flagship,  "was 
an  armored  cruiser  of  three  thousand  and  ninety 
tons;  she  was  launched  at  Ferrol  in  1887. 
She  had  a  single  screw,  was  two  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  long,  forty-three  feet  in  beam, 
had  a  mean  draft  of  15.5  feet  and  a  speed  of 
seventeen  and  a  half  knots.  She  carried  an  arma 
ment  of  six  6.2-inch  Hontorio  breech  loaders, 
two  2.7-inch  Hontorios,  three  six-pound,  two 
four-pound,  and  six  three-pound  rapid  fire 
guns,  two  machine  guns  and  five  torpedo  tubes. 
She  had  a  crew  of  three  hundred  and  seventy 
men. 

The  Castilla  was  a  wooden  second-class  cruiser, 
launched  at  Cadiz  in  1881,  and  was  bark  rigged, 
with  a  single  screw.  Her  length  was  two  hun 
dred  and  forty-six  feet,  her  beam  forty-six  feet, 
her  draft  twenty-one  feet,  her  displacement  three 
thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-two  tons  and 
her  speed  fourteen  knots.  Her  armament  con 
sisted  of  four  5.9-inch  Krupp  guns,  two  4.7-inch 
Krupp  guns,  two  3.4-inch  guns,  two  2.9-inch 
Krupp  guns,  eight  rapid-fire  guns,  four  one-pound 
revolving  cannon  and  two  torpedo  tubes.  She 
carried  three  hundred  men. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  41 

The  Don  Juan  De  Austria  was  an  iron  cruiser 
of  the  third  class.  She  was  launched  at  Trieste 
in  1875,  had  a  displacement  of  one  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty  tons,  a  length  of  two  hun 
dred  and  ten  feet,  beam  of  thirty -two  feet,  draft 
of  twelve  feet  six  inches  and  a  speed  of  fourteen 
knots.  She  carried  an  armored  belt  of  from  four 
to  eight  inches  thick  and  nine  and  a  half  feet 
broad.  Her  armament  consisted  of  four  4.7- 
inch  Hontorio  breech  loaders,  two  2.7-inch  breech 
loaders  twelve  three-pound  quick  firers,  four 
one-pound  revolving  cannon,  five  machine  guns 
and  four  torpedo  tubes.  Her  central  batteries 
and  bulkheads  were  shielded  and  her  deck  was 
protected.  She  carried  a  crew  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy-three  men. 

The  Don  Antonio  de  Ulloa  was  a  third-class 
unprotected  cruiser.  She  was  launched  at  Car- 
raca  in  1887.  She  was  an  iron  single-screw  ves 
sel,  two  hundred  and  ten  feet  long,  thirty-two 
feet  beam,  with  a  draft  of  twelve  and  a  half  feet, 
a  displacement  of  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty-two  tons  and  a  speed  of  fourteen  knots  an 
hour.  Her  armament  consisted  of  four  4.7-inch 
Hontorio  breech  loaders,  and  five  six-pound 
Krupp  rapid  firers.  She  carried  a  crew  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-three  men. 

The  Velasco  was  a  small  cruiser  of  the  old  type, 


42  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

launched  at  Blackwall  in  1881.  She  was  of  iron, 
with  one  screw,  a  length  of  two  hundred  and  ten 
feet,  a  beam  of  thirty-two,  a  draft  of  thirteen 
feet,  a  tonnage  of  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  and  a  speed  of  fourteen  knots.  She 
carried  three  six-inch  Armstrong  breech  loaders, 
two  two-inch  Hontorio  guns  and  two  machine 
guns.  Her  crew  was  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  men. 

The  Isla  de  Cuba  and  Isla  de  Luzon  were,  sister 
ships.  They  were  both  laid  down  at  Elswick  in 
1886  and  launched  in  1887.  They  were  third- 
class  protected  cruisers  with  two  screws  and  car 
ried  military  tops.  Their  length  was  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty-five  feet,  their  beam  thirty  feet, 
their  mean  draft  eleven  feet  six  inches,  their 
displacement  one  thousand  and  forty  tons 
and  their  speed  fifteen  knots.  They  were 
protected  by  steel  deck  plates  and  carried  steel- 
clad  conning  towers.  The  armament  of  each 
consisted  of  six  4.7-inch  Hontorio  guns,  four  six- 
pound  rapid-firing  guns  four  one-inch  Nordenfeldt 
machine  guns  and  three  torpedo  tubes.  They 
carried  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  men  each. 

The  Quiros  and  Villalobos  were  also  sister 
ships,  both  launched  at  Hong  Kong ;  the  former  in 
1895  and  the  latter  in  1896.  They  were  gun 
boats  of  composite  construction,  single  screw, 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  43 

one  hundred  and  forty-five  feet  long,  and  twenty- 
three  feet  beam.  Their  tonnage  was  three  hun 
dred  and  forty-seven  and  their  speed  twelve 
knots.  They  were  each  armed  with  two  six-pound 
rapid  firing  guns,  and  two  five-barrelled  Norden- 
feldt  machine  guns.  Each  had  a  crew  of  sixty. 

The  gunboats  El  Correo  and  General  Lezo  were 
likewise  sister  ships.  They  were  twin-screw 
iron  vessels  of  five  hundred  and  twenty-four  tons 
displacement,  with  engines  of  six  hundred  horse 
power.  They  were  built  respectively  at  Carraca 
and  Cartagena  in  1885.  The  El  Correo  was 
armed  with  three  4.7-inch  Hontorio  guns,  two 
quick-fire  guns,  two  machine  guns  and  one  tor 
pedo  tube.  Her  speed  was  ten  knots.  The  Gen 
eral  Lezo  carried  one  3.5-inch  gun,  had  one 
machine  gun  and  two  torpedo  tubes.  The  com 
plement  of  each  gunboat  was  ninety-eight  men. 

The  Marques  del  Duero  was  a  dispatch  boat 
used  as  a  gunboat.  She  was  an  iron  twin-screw 
vessel  of  five  hundred  tons,  was  built  at  La 
Seyne  in  1875,  was  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
feet  long  and  twenty-six  feet  in  beam.  Her 
speed  was  ten  knots  an  hour.  She  carried  one 
6.2-inch  muzzle  loading  Palliser  rifle,  two  4.7- 
inch  smoothbores  and  a  machine  gun.  Her 
complement  was  ninety-eight  men. 

Besides  these  the  Spaniards  had  two  transports 


44  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

or  troopships,  the  Mindanao  and  the  Manila,  but 
these  cannot  be  considered  as  active  belligerents. 
The  Mindanao,  however,  had  two  torpedo  boats, 
which  were  heard  from  during  the  engagement 
and  carried  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
although  these  troops  took  no  part  in  the  fight. 
Taking  the  three  items  of  class,  armament 
and  complement  the  two  fleets  stood  as  follows: 


AMERICAN  FLEET. 

Name.  Class.  Armament. 

Olympia  ........  Protected  Cruiser..  Four  8-in.,  ten  5-in.,  24  R.F...  466 

Baltimore  ......  Protected  Cruiser.  .Four  8-in.,  six  6-in.,  10R.F..395 

Boston  .........  Par.  Ptd.  Cruiser...  Two  8-in,  six  6-in.,  10R.F  .....  273 

Raleigh  .........  Protected  Cruiser.  .One  6-in.,  ten  5-in.,  14  R.F..  .  .295 

Concord  ........  Gunboat  ............  Six  6-in.,  9  R.F  ...............  150 

Petrel  ..........  Gunboat  ............  Four  6-in.,  7  R.F  .............  100 

McCulloch  ......  Revenue  Cutter  ____  Four  4-in  .....................  130 

SPANISH  FLEET. 
*Reina  Cristina.  Steel  Cruiser  ........  Six  6.2-in.,  two  2.7.,  13  R.F...  870 

Castilla  ........  Wood  Cruiser  ......  Four  5.9,  two  4.7.   two  3.4, 

Don  Antonio  de  [two  2.9,  12  R.F.  .300 

Ulloa  .........  Iron  Cruiser  ........  Four  4.7,  5  R.F  ................  173 

Don    Juan     de 

Austria  .......  Iron  Cruiser  ........  Four  4.7,  two  2.7,  21  R.F  .....  173 

Islade  Luzon...  Steel  Ptd.  Cruiser...  Six  4.7,  8  R.F  .................  164 

IsladeCuba....  Steel  Ptd.  Cruiser...  Six  4.7,  8  R.F  .................  164 

Velasco  .........  Iron  Cruiser  ........  Three  6-in.,  two  2.7,  2R.F  —  173 

Marques  del  Du- 

ero  ...........  Gunboat  ............  One  6.2,  two  4.7,  1  R.F  .........  98 

General  Lezo...  Gunboat  ............  One  3.5,  1  R.F  ..................  97 

El  Correo  .......  Gunboat  ............  Three  4.7,  4  R.F  ..............  116 

Quiros  ..........  Gunboat  ............  4  R.F  ..........................  60 

Villalobos  ......  Gunboat  ............  4  R.F  ..........................  60 

Two  torpedo  boats  and  two  transports. 

In  resume  the   matter  stood  therefore  as  fol 
lows: 

We  had  four  cruisers,  two  gunboats,  one  cut- 

*  Flagship. 


CAPT.     FRANK    \VII,DES 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  45 

ter,  fifty -seven  classified  big  guns ;  seventy-four 
rapid  firers  and  machine  guns  and  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eight  men. 

Against  us  were  pitted  seven  cruisers,  five  gun 
boats,  two  torpedo  boats ;  fifty-two  classified  big 
guns;  eighty -three  rapid  firers  and  machine 
guns,  and  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  men. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  we  had  a  greater 
number  of  heavy  guns  and  that  our  ships  were  of 
modern  construction,  nor  must  it  be  overlooked 
that  the  Spanish  fleet  was  much  more  numerous 
and  that  it  had  the  immense  assistance  of  pro 
tecting  ports  manned  with  strong  garrisons  and 
mounting  an  unknown  number  of  guns,  of  whose 
caliber  and  force  we  had  been  told  most  terrify 
ing  things. 


46  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE     FIRST     BOUND. 

IT  was  with  barely  steerage  way  that,  with  the 
United  States  flag  flying  at  all  our  mastheads, 
with  drums  beating  to  quarters,  and  having  sailed 
some  seventeen  miles  up  the  bay,  our  fleet,  as 
soon  as  it  had  sighted  the  Spaniards,  passed  in 
a  broad  curve  to  the  east  side  of  the  bay.  Then, 
with  the  Olympia  leading,  we  curved  around  the 
Manila  water  front ;  again  turned  and  headed  for 
a  sailing  line  exactly  parallel  to  the  line  of  Mon- 
tojo's  fleet. 

It  might  have  been  that  Montojo  for  one  wild 
moment  imagined  that  it  was  the  Commodore's 
intention  to  put  out  of  the  bay  again,  on  the 
conclusion  that  he  had  run  into  a  stronger  foe 
than  he  had  anticipated.  If  so,  the  Don  was 
soon  to  be  most  dreadfully  disillusioned. 

The  Commodore's  plan — and  from  first  to  last 
he  followed  it  out  with  a  grim  and  steadfast  pre 
cision  that  made  every  man  in  the  fleet  as  grim 
and  deliberate — the  Commodore's  plan  of  action 
was  simply  this :  The  detour  to  the  east  was  in 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  47 

order  to  drop  tlie  supply  sliips  at  a  careful  dis 
tance  and  then  to  sweep  around  with  sufficient 
way  to  have  good  sailing  past  the  enemy.  Each 
of  the  ships  was  to  hold  her  fire  until  within  cer 
tain  effective  distance;  to  pour  in  every  available 
shot  as  she  passed  the  enemy's  fleet  and  forts;  to 
wheel  as  soon  as  she  had  passed  out  of  effective 
distance ;  to  steam  past  the  forts  and  fleet  on  a 
return  line,  but  closer  inshore  than  on  the 
first  line  of  attack ;  to  wheel  again  as  soon  as  she 
had  passed  out  of  effective  range  and  to  keep 
thus  wheeling  and  passing  and  firing  until  the 
forts  were  silenced  and  the  fleet  was  smashed,  or 
until  a  signal  of  recall  was  floated.  As  we  passed 
on  the  eastward  curve  before  actually  beginning 
the  engagement,  our  lookouts  reported  that  Ad 
miral  Montojo's  flag  was  flying  on  the  cruiser 
Eeina  Cristina.  They  reported  also  that  the 
Spaniards  appeared  to  be  protected  by  a  sort  of 
roughly  constructed  boom  of  logs.  I  could  dis 
tinguish  no  steam  up  and  it  occurred  to  me  that 
the  Spanish  admiral's  idea  was  that  our  ships 
would  be  drawn  up  opposite  his  and  that  the 
fight  would  be  carried  on  as  a  sort  of  brigade 
engagement,  each  man  to  stand  his  ground  until 
shot  down.  If  so,  he  was  once  more  woefully 
disillusioned.  The  Commodore's  idea  was  an 
engagement  of  evolution.  I  understand  that  in 


48  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

the  official  reports  sent  to  Madrid  it  was  stated, 
with  the  true  Spanish  process  of  extracting  self- 
adulation  out  of  a  bad  job,  that  Montojo  had 
"forced  the  American  fleet  to  manoeuvre  fre 
quently.  "  It  is  the  one  joke  of  the  tragedy. 

As  we  steamed  slowly  along  then,  after  drop 
ping  the  supply  ships  there  came  a  spit  of  flame 
and  a  boom  from  the  bastions  of  Cavite,  followed 
immediately  by  another  flame  spit  and  a  sharper 
report  from  one  of  the  Spanish  flagship's  modern 
guns.  Both  shots  dropped  somewhere  in  the 
bay  and  our  only  answer  was  in  sending  up  a 
string  of  flags  bearing  the  code  watchword 
" Remember  the  Maine."  Not  exactly  our  only 
answer  either;  for  as  the  flags  fluttered  out  the 
whole  fleet  roared,  but  it  was  not  the  roar  of 
guns,  it  was  the  concerted  yelp  of  the  sea  dogs 
that  knew  their  time  for  vengeance  was  at  hand. 

On  steamed  the  fleet,  with  every  gun  loaded 
and  every  man  at  his  post;  but  not  a  lanyard  was 
pulled.  Even  the  Spaniards  at  Cavite  ceased 
firing  as  we  moved  down  toward  Manila.  As  we 
rounded  past  the  city's  water-front,  with  about 
four  miles  of  blue  water  between  us  and  it,  we  could 
with  our  glasses  make  out  the  city  walls,  church 
towers,  and  other  high  places,  crowded  with  sight 
seers.  I  heard  afterward  that  a  number  of  these 
sightseers  drove  down  to  Cavite  to  see  the 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  49 

Yankees  blown  out  of  the  water.  I  never  heard 
how  they  got  back.  The  battery  on  the  Luneta 
mole  paid  us  a  little  more  attention  and  sent 
three  shells  at  us.  They  must  have  been  from 
large  guns,  for  the  projectiles  screamed  far  over 
head  and  fell  miles  beyond  us.  Here  again  it 
was  the  impatient  Concord  that  replied  and  she 
sent  two  of  her  shells  hurtling  toward  the  fort. 

The  Commodore,  however,  sent  up  a  signal  to 
hold  fire  as  he  had  no  idea  of  battering  down  the 
city  yet.  As  we  turned  from  Manila  the  Com 
modore  said  something  about  the  picturesque- 
ness  of  the  city,  adding  that  the  blue  hills  to  the 
back  of  the  town  reminded  him  of  those  of  Ver 
mont.  It  was  most  unaffectedly  said  and  was  no 
more  tinged  with  bravado  than  was  Captain 
Wildes'  use  of  a  palm-leaf  fan  during  the  en 
gagement.  Captain  Wildes  used  the  fan  because 
he  felt  hot,  and  heaven  knows  it  was  one  of  the 
hottest  Sunday  mornings  that  I  ever  remember; 
and  the  Commodore  spoke  of  the  Luzon  hills  as 
he  did  because  they  impressed  him  as  they  did. 
From  the  first  to  the  last  the  Commodore  never 
for  one  instant  changed  his  demeanor,  which  was 
always  that  of  a  man  who  had  a  duty  to  do  and 
who  went  about  it  with  the  plain,  everyday  de 
termination  to  do  that  duty.  As  we  headed 
toward  the  Spanish  fleet  their  gunners  and  those 


50  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

of  the  forts  began  a  right  merry  fusillade.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  the  booming  roar  that  showed 
the  presence  of  old  guns,  but  there  was  also  a 
good  deal  of  the  sharper  declamation  that  told 
us  of  modern  rifles  and  of  heavy  work  laid  out 
for  us. 

So  far  as  guns  were  concerned  that  would  have 
been  the  fact  had  it  not  been  that  in  this  battle 
of  Manila  the  value  of  the  man  behind  the  gun  as 
a  fighting  factor  was  pre-eminent.  With  all  this 
thundering  and  snapping  of  the  Spaniards,  how 
ever,  there  was  no  answer  from  us ;  the  turrets 
were  silent  and  each  sponson  was  unsmoked. 
Up  went  the  signal,  "Hold  your  fire  until  close 
in,  "and  on  went  the  squadron.  Suddenly  some 
thing  happened.  Close  off  the  bow  of  the  Balti 
more  there  came  a  shaking  of  the  bay  and  a 
geyser  of  mud  and  water.  Then  right  ahead  of 
the  Raleigh  came  another  ugly  fountain  of  harbor 
soil  and  water. 

We  were  among  the  mines  at  last. 

No  notice  whatever  was  taken  of  the  fact.  No 
change  of  course  was  ordered;  no  special  word 
of  command  was  given  and  though  each  man  of 
us,  I  suppose,  took  a  tooth  grip  of  the  lower 
lip  and  had  no  idea  of  how  many  seconds  lay 
between  him  and  kingdom  come,  I  can  state  it  as 
a  fact  that  the  only  remarks  I  heard  made  were 


y 

CT>£: 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  51 

such  natural  ones  as  "Torpedoes  at  last,"  or 
"Now  we'll  get  it." 

But  we  did  not  get  it,  for  these  two  upheavals 
marked  the  extent  of  our  experience  with  the 
"terrible  mines"  of  Manila  bay.  Still  the  roar 
and  snap  of  the  Spanish  ships  and  forts  kept  on 
as  they  had  ever  since  ten  minutes  past  five,  with 
the  short  cessation  while  we  were  opposite  Ma 
nila,  and  still,  with  the  exception  of  the  Con 
cord's  evidence  of  impatience,  we  had  not  begun 
to  fight.  The  Commodore,  his  chief  of  staff 
Commander  Lamberton,  the  executive  officer 
Lieutenant  Reese  and  the  navigator,  were  on  the 
forward  bridge.  Captain  Gridley  was  in  the 
conning  tower.  With  a  glance  at  the  shore  the 
Commodore  turned  to  the  officer  next  to  him  and 
said  "About  five  thousand  yards  I  should  say, 
eh,  Reese?" 

"Between  that  and  six  thousand,  I  should 
think,  sir,"  Reese  answered. 

The  Commodore  then  leaned  over  the  railing 
and  called  out : 

"When  you  are  ready  you  may  fire,  Gridley." 

Captain  Gridley  evidently  was  ready,  for  it 
was  at  eighteen  minutes  and  thirty-five  seconds 
of  six  o'clock  when  the  Commodore  gave  the 
order  to  fire,  and  it  was  at  eighteen  minutes  and 
thirty -four  seconds  of  six  o'clock  when  the  floor 


52  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

of  the  bridge  sprang  up  beneath  our  feet  as  the 
port  eight-inch  gun  of  our  forward  turret  gave 
its  introductory  roar.  Our  first  aim  was  at  the 
center  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  the  Olympiads  shot 
being  particularly  directed,  as  a  sort  of  inter 
national  inark  of  courtesy,  to  the  Eeina  Cristina. 
About  coincidental  with  the  Commodore's 
polite  intimation  to  Captain  Gridley,  he  ordered 
the  signal  run  up  for  the  ships  astern,  "Fire  as 
convenient." 

As  our  turret  gun  rang  out,  the  Baltimore  and 
Boston  took  up  the  chorus,  their  .forward  guns 
pitching  in  two-hundred-and-fifty-poun:1  shells. 
The  reply  of  the  Spaniards  was  simply  terrific. 
Their  ship  and  shore  guns  seemed  to  unite  in 
one  unending  snap  and  roar,  while  the  scream  of 
their  shot,  the  bursting  of  shells,  made  up  a  din 
that  was  as  savage  as  it  was  uncef^liig.  It  was, 
however,  but  as  the  scraping  r'.  fiddle  strings  to 
the  blare  and  crash  of  a  full  orchestra  when  com 
pared  with  that  which  was  to  follow. 

One  wailing,  shrieking  shell  was  making 
straight  for  the  Olympia's  forward  bridge  when 
it  exploded  about  a  hundred  feet  in  front  of  us, 
one  fragment  sawing  the  rigging  just  over  our 
heads.  Another  fragment  chiselled  a  long  splin 
ter  from  the  deck  just  under  where  the  Commo 
dore  stood,  a  third  smashed  the  bridge  gratings, 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  53 

and  all  around  and  about  and  above  us  there  was 
the  sputter  and  shriek  and  roar  of  projectiles. 

But  the  miracle  was  that  none  of  us  was  hit. 
Through  this  hail  of  miraculously  impotent  steel 
we  steered  until  within  a  distance  of  four  thou 
sand  yards  of  the  Spanish  column. 

"Open  with  all  the  guns,"  sftict  the  Commo 
dore,  and  they  were  opened.  That  is,  all  on  the 
port  broadside.  The  eight-inchers  roared  and 
the  five-inch  rapid  filers  spluttered  and  cracked, 
and  soon  the  Baltimore  was  booming  away,  then 
the  Raleigh,  then  the  Boston  and  Concord  and 
•finally  one  Petrel,  as  busy  and  earnest  in  the 
management  of  her  long  popguns  as  though  the 
very  issue  of  the  fight  depended  on  her. 

D;'  the  time  the  Petrel  had  passed  the  Span 
iards,  the  Olympia  had  swung  around  on  her 
return  line  of  attack  and  once  more  we  were 
steaming  past  Mcntojo  with  our  starboard  guns 
flaming,  roaring,  spitting  and  smoking  as  we 
went.  As  we  passed,  the  batteries  on  shore  and 
the  Spanish  batteries  afloat  banged  away  at  us, 
fighting  gallantly  and  furiously.  One  shot  went 
clean  through  the  Baltimore,  but  hit  no  one. 
Another  struck  just  outside  the  wardroom  but 
did  not  even  dent  the  ship's  side.  Another  cut 
the  signal  halyards  from  Lieutenant  Brumbuy's 
hands  on  the  after  bridge;  Ensign  Dodridge's 


54  "With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

stateroom  on  board  the  Boston  was  wrecked  by  a 
shell  which  entered  the  fore  quarter  and  started 
a  fire,  while  another  fire  was  started  by  a  shell 
which  burst  in  the  port  hammock  netting. 
Another  shell  passed  through  the  Boston's  fore 
mast  not  far  from  where  Captain  "Wildes  was  on 
the  bridge. 

On  the  third  turn  the  Raleigh  was  caught  in  a 
strong  insetting  current  and  was  carried  plump 
into  the  bows  of  two  Spanish  cruisers.  Instead 
of  sending  her  to  the  bottom,  the  enemy's  ships 
seemed  to  be  positively  useless,  so  taking  advan 
tage  of  her  nearness,  the  Ealeigh  sent  in  a  couple 
of  raking  fires  before  she  steamed  back  into  place. 
Captain  Coghlan  and  Lieutenant  Singer  spoke  of 
it  afterward  as  the  picnic  of  the  engagement. 

It  was  on  the  third  turn,  too,  that  the  great 
naval  duel  between  the  two  flagships  took  place. 

"When  we  sighted  the  Spanish  fleet,  I  remarked, 
it  will  be  remembered,  that  the  enemy  seemed  to 
have  no  steam  up  and  that  the  fleet  seemed  to  lie 
behind  a  breakwater.  As  we  came  closer  to 
them,  however,  we  saw  more  clearly  the  scheme 
of  their  order.  Put  out  your  right  hand  with 
the  thumb  extended ;  call  the  thumb  the  Cavite 
spit  and  the  space  between  the  thumb  and  the 
forefinger  Cavite  Bay.  Manila  lies  about  where 
the  nail  of  the  forefinger  is.  The  town  of 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  55 

Cavite  lies  in  the  pocket  of  the  thumb  and  fore 
finger,  and  the  thumb's  nail  stands  for  the  main 
Cavite  batteries,  four  in  number.  Put  a  pencil 
halfway  across  from  the  thumb's  nail  to  the  root 
joint  of  the  forefinger  and  it  will  stand  for  the 
Cavite  arsenal  with  its  boom  extension.  Behind 
this  boom  lay  the  gunboats  of  the  Spanish  fleet, 
while  in  front  of  it,  facing  Manila  Bay,  were  the 
Spanish  cruisers. 

They  lay  anchored  while  we  made  our  first  and 
second  parallels  of  attack,  but  by  the  time  we 
were  sweeping  up  on  the  third  course  their 
stokers  had  made  such  hurry  work  that  the  smoke 
poured  out  of  the  Reina  Cristina's  smokestacks; 
there  was  a  fleece  of  white  gathered  about  the 
steam  pipe,  and  the  flagship  moved  out  to  the 
attack.  She  gallantly  stood  for  the  Olympia  and 
it  looked  as  though  it  was  her  intention  to  ram 
us.  The  Commodore  passed  the  word  to  con 
centrate  all  possible  fire  on  the  Eeina  Christina, 
and  she  actually  shivered  under  the  battering  of 
our  storm  of  shot  and  shell.  Rents  appeared  near 
her  waterline  where  the  eight-inch  shells  had 
torn  their  way.  One  shot  struck  the  port  bridge 
on  which  Admiral  Montojo  stood,  upon  which, 
like  the  brave  man  he  was,  the  admiral  coolly 
stepped  to  the  other  end. 

But  no  bravery  could  stand  the  driving,  crush- 


56  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

ing,  rending  of  the  tons  of  steel  which  we  poured 
into  the  Cristina,  and  there  was  quite  a  little 
cheer  from  our  forward  men  as  the  Spanish  flag 
ship  slowly  turned  and  made  for  the  shore.  But 
appreciation  of  courage  on  the  part  of  the  enemy 
did  not  prevent  our  gunners  from  also  appreciat 
ing  the  excellent  opportunity  which  the  retreat 
ing  flagship  gave  us  for  a  raking  shot.  As  she 
got  into  her  swing  with  the  stern  dead  toward 
us,  one  of  Captain  Gridley's  guns  thundered,  and 
an  eight-inch  shell  struck  the  enemy  as  squarely  in 
the  center  as  though  she  had  been  painted  off  in 
target  squares.  It  was  ft  bull's-eye,  so  marvelous 
in  its  exactness  and  so  terrible  in  its  effects  that 
I  cannot  help  speaking  of  it  a  little  more  at 
length. 

We  saw  from  where  we  stood  that  it  shattered 
the  Cristina's  steering  gear,  and,  unless  our  eyes 
very  much  deceived  us,  we  saw,  too,  that  the 
Spaniard  was  actually  driven  forward  with  a 
shivering  motion  like  one  prize  fighter  sent  in 
catapult  fashion  staggering  into  the  ropes  from 
the  fist  blow  of  another  prize  fighter.  From 
what  we  learned  then,  and  from  W7hat  we  learned 
afterward,  I  am  convinced  that  no  man  in  the 
squadron  had  up  to  that  time  any  idea  of  the 
awfully  destructive  possibilities  of  the  eight- 
incher.  The  projectile  weighed  two  hundred 


From  Harper's  Weekly.  Copyright,  1898,  by  Harper  &  Brother*. 

Capt.  Joseph   B.  Coghlan. 


\ 


\ 


\ 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  57 

and  fifty  pounds,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  powder  were  used  to  expel  it.  The  gun 
itself  was  about  twenty-eight  feet  long.  When 
it  left  Gridley's  gun  the  shell  traveled  at  the  rate 
of  two  thousand  feet  a  second.  The  distance  be 
tween  the  Olympia  and  the  Reina  Cristina  was 
about  two  thousand  five  hundred  yards,  and  the 
time  between  the  shot's  leaving  the  muzzle  of  our 
gun  and  its  impact  on  the  stern  of  the  Spanish 
ship  was  the  scarcely  appreciable  one  of  five  sec 
onds. 

When  it  left  our  gun  it  had  what  is  techni 
cally  known  as  an  energy  of  eight  thousand  and 
eleven  hundred  foot-tons;  that  is,  it  would  have 
gone  through  twenty-one  and  a  half  inches  of 
Harveyized  steel.  But  the  Reina  Cristina  was  an 
unarmored  vessel  and  all  that  enormous  penetra 
tive  energy  was  expended  on  the  Spanish  cruiser's 
protected  sides  and  such  internal  resistance  as 
partitions,  bulkheads,  engines,  etc.  It  was 
through  all  these  obstructions  that  the  great 
shell  tore  its  way  until  it  reached  the  aft  boiler. 
There  it  exploded  and  as  it  did  so  ripped  up  the 
deck  of  the  cruiser  and  scattered  its  hail  of  steel 
in  all  directions.  We  could  see  the  smoke  pour 
ing  out  of  the  vessel,  the  gush  of  escaping  steam 
and  the  shower  of  splinters  and  mangled  bodies. 

That  one  shot  practically  disabled  the  Spanish 


58  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

flagship,  while  in  the  whole  duel  between  the 
Cristina  and  the  Olympia  sixty  of  the  Spanish 
crew  were  killed  including  the  chaplain  and  first 
lieutenant.  It  was  small  wonder  she  retreated. 

Every  time  we  swung  round  the  ellipse  line  of 
attack  and  brought  our  broadside  to  bear  on  the 
Spanish  fleet  our  eight-inch  guns  perforated  the 
enemy's  protected  decks  and  sides  with  all  the 
ease  and  accuracy  imaginable.  For  such  a  range 
and  for  such  an  engagement  the  eight-inch  gun 
was  exactly  what  was  needed. 

It  was  during  the  frightful  hubbub  of  the  duel 
between  the  admiral  and  the  Commodore  that 
two  gunboats  belonging  to  the  Mindanao  and 
acting  as  torpedo  boats  crept  out  from  behind 
the  Cavite  pier  and  started  in  to  do  desperate 
deeds.  One  stole  out  along  the  shore,  then 
turned  and  made  for  the  supply  ships,  while 
the  other  headed  for  the  Olympia.  The  Petrel 
was  sent  after  the  first  and  after  a  sharp  bark  or 
two  from  her  four-pounders,  the  Spaniard  evi 
dently  gave  up  the  job  and  made  for  the  shore. 
The  Petrel  made  after  her  and  while  the  Spanish 
crew  clambered  over  their  boat's  sides  and  on  to 
the  beach  and  up  into  the  underbrush,  the 
Petrel  turned  her  rapid-fire  guns  on  their  craft 
and  literally  blew  her  to  pieces. 

The  other  torpedo  boat,   which  was  bound  to 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  59 

destroy  our  flagship,  made  a  better  fight.  Our 
secondary  battery  was  concentrated  on  her,  but 
still  she  kept  on  until  within  five  hundred  yards, 
and  matters  were  beginning  to  look  serious  for 
us.  Then  the  machine  guns  in  the  tops  began 
to  treat  her  to  a  hailstorm  and  this  proved  too 
much  for  this  representative  of  Spanish  naval 
daring.  She  turned  tail,  and  as  she  did  so  the 
same  fate  that  befell  the  Reina  Cristina  on  her 
retreat  overtook  this  gunboat.  A  shell  struck 
her  just  inside  the  stern  railing,  exploded,  and 
the  gunboat  dipped  suddenly  in  the  middle,  her 
stern  and  bow  rose  as  suddenly  in  the  air,  and 
she  disappeared. 

While  the  Olympia  was  attending  to  the  Keina 
Cristina  the  Baltimore  directed  her  particular 
attention  to  the  Castilla,  and  before  our  vessel 
had  sent  in  her  last  gun  from  the  aft  turret  the 
Spaniard  was  in  flames  from  stem  to  stern.  It 
was  this  sudden  blaze  of  the  Castilla  that  led  to 
the  Spanish  report  of  our  use  of  petroleum 
bombs.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  it 
was  solely  due  to  the  explosion  of  modern  shells 
in  an  antiquated  wooden  boat. 

Backward  and  forward  we  went  twice  more, 
each  time  drawing  nearer  to  the  devoted  Spanish 
fleet,  and  as  each  of  our  vessels  came  into  action 
the  same  manoeuvre  was  repeated.  First  the  for- 


'60  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

ward  guns,  then  the  broadside,  port  or  starboard, 
as  it  might  be,  and  lastly,  the  stern  chasers  as 
each  vessel  passed  and  gave  place  to  the  follow 
ing  ship.  The  firing  of  our  broadsides  was  dis 
tinguished  by  a  well-defined  crash  that  came  as 
regularly  as  clockwork,  while  the  fire  of  the 
Spanish  ships  and  forts  produced  a  continuous 
roll  and  rattle.  But  with  all  this  unbroken  roar 
from  the  enemy  afloat  and  ashore,  none  of  our 
ships  was  seen  to  stagger  or  draw  off,  and  when 
we  were  near  enough  to  be  well  in  range  of  the 
Spanish  small  guns  and  fighting  tops,  still  the 
American  line  of  ships  went  on  with  its  deadly 
work  as  uninterruptedly  as  though  it  had  been  a 
railroad  train  running  on  a  strict  schedule  time 
through  a  grove  of  yokels  armed  with  putty 
blowers. 

After  passing  five  times  in  front  of  the  enemy 
and  the  men  having  been  at  their  blazing  work 
for  two  uninterrupted  hours  the  Commodore  con 
cluded  that  it  would  be  well  to  call  a  halt.  By 
this  time  the  smoke  of  the  engagement  was  hang 
ing  so  thick  along  the  shore  and  over  the  water 
that  not  only  was  it  almost  impossible  to  distin 
guish  ship  or  fort  except  by  a  gray  mass  and  the 
sputter  of  flame,  but  we  were  so  smoke-encom 
passed  that  it  was  next  to  an  impossibility  to  see 
any  signals. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  61 

"What  time  is  it,  Reese?"  asked  the  Commo 
dore. 

"Seven  forty-five,  sir." 

"Breakfast  time,"  said  the  Commodore  with 
an  odd  smile ;  "run  up  the  signals  for  'cease  firing' 
and  to  follow  me." 

With  that  the  Olympia's  bows  were  set  for  a 
run  to  the  eastern  side  of  the  bay  where  the 
storeships  lay.  As  we  swung  out  the  Spaniards 
gave  a  cheer.  Badly  used  up  as  they  were  there 
was  lots  of  fight  in  them  yet  and  they  possibly 
imagined  as  they  saw  our  line  forming  to  with 
draw  that  the  fight  was  over.  So,  too,  might  the 
Manila  gunners  on  the  Luneta  fort  have  done  for 
as  we  passed  them  they  let  fly  with  their  Krupp 
guns. 

"No  reply,  I  suppose,  sir?"  said  Lamberton, 
looking  meaningly  over  to  the  forward  turret, 
while  the  men  at  the  five-inch  guns  were  cocking 
their  eyes  inquisitively  up  at  the  bridge. 

"Oh,  no,"  said  the  Commodore,  "let  them 
amuse  themselves  if  they  will.  We  will  have 
plenty  of  opportunity  to  burn  powder.  We 
haven't  begun  fighting  yet." 

And  so  it  proved,  for  dreadful  as  these  two 
hours  had  been  for  the  Spaniards  they  were  mild 
in  their  results  compared  to  that  which  was  to 
come.  We  had  but  concluded  the  first  round. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ALL    HANDS    PIPED    TO    BREAKFAST. 

No  sooner  had  we  reached  the  anchorage 
ground  beside  the  transport  ships  than  the  Com 
modore  called  all  the  commanders  on  board  to 
report.  Then  it  was  that  the  wonder  of  it  came 
to  pass. 

Not  a  ship  disabled. 

Not  a  gun  out  of  order. 

Not  a  man  killed. 

Not  a  man  injured. 

It  seemed  absolutely  impossible,  but  it  was 
the  fact.  There  were,  it  is  true,  some  rents  in 
the  rigging,  some  gashes  in  the  upper  works,  and 
some  scratches  along  the  decks  of  the  ships ;  a  few 
of  the  men  were  scratched  and  bruised  by 
tumbling  over  lines  and  buckets,  but  that  was 
all.  I  say  again,  it  seemed  incredible  that  this 
should  have  been  the  result  to  us  in  that  awful 
two  hours'  fight,  while  to  the  Spaniards  it  had 
meant  such  destruction  and  desolation.  Captain 
after  captain  reported  to  the  Commodore  in  the 
game  strain. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  63 

"All  in  good  shape,  sir,"  reported  Captain 
Wildes  of  the  Boston,  "  except  that  it  was  very 
hot." 

"Men  tired  and  ship  a  little  scratched,"  said 
Captain  Dyer  of  the  Baltimore. 

"Everything  all  right  and  ready  to  resume 
business  at  a  moment's  notice,"  said  Commander 
Walker  of  the  Concord. 

"  'Out  of  the  jaws  of  death,  out  of  the  gates 
of  Hell,'  and  only  a  little  smoky  from  the  trip," 
said  Captain  Coghlan  of  the  Ealeigh,  who  has  his 
poets. 

"Poor  Kandall  died  from  heart-disease  as  we 
were  passing  Corregidor,"  reported  Captain 
Hodgson,  "but  that  is  the  extent  of  our  casual 
ties."  Frank  B.  Kandall  was  the  engineer  of  the 
McCulloch  and  had  long  been  subject  to  heart- 
disease.  The  suppressed  excitement  of  running 
the  gauntlet  of  the  entrance  forts  in  the  dark,  and 
the  heat  of  the  McCulloch 's  engine-room,  proved 
too  much  for  him,  and  he  died  quite  suddenly. 
His  death,  however,  can  in  no  way  be  listed  as  a 
fatality  of  the  engagement. 

There  were  many  stories  told  of  miraculous 
escapes.  A  shell  entered  the  Boston's  wardroom 
in  which  Paymaster  Martin  sat.  He  swears  that 
the  missile  was  making  straight  for  him  and  that 
it  exploded  within  five  feet  of  him.  It  partially 


64:  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

wrecked  the  wardroom,  but  not  a  fragment 
struck  Martin. 

Down  in  the  wardroom  of  the  Olympia  the 
surgeon's  operating  table  had  been  set  out,  wait 
ing  for  the  subjects  that  never  came.  Chaplain 
Frazier  was  down  there  waiting  to  comfort  or 
administer  the  last  rites  to  the  wounded  or  dying 
heroes  who  never  materialized.  Growing  tired 
of  waiting  for  these  the  chaplain  stuck  his  head 
out  of  one  of  the  six-pounder  gun  ports,  when  a 
shell  struck  the  ship's  side  some  three  feet  away. 
Mr.  Frazier  drew  his  head  back  with  the  rapid 
ity  of  a  galvanized  turtle  and  so  preserved  us  our 
representative  of  the  Church  Militant.  And  so 
on. 

Funny  little  finger-points  of  character  were 
thrown  out  here  and  there.  We  heard,  for  in 
stance,  that  one  lieutenant  of  the  Baltimore,  who 
was  rather  a  good  young  man,  too,  was  heard 
softly  swearing  to  himself  the  most  extravagant 
and  outlandish  oaths  possible,  all  the  time  we 
were  stealing  up  the  bay;  another  sang  the  first 
four  bars  of  " Sweet  Marie"  over  and  over  again 
with  a  persistency  that  was  maddening;  while 
brave  old  Howard  of  the  Concord  put  a  shade 
over  his  electric  light  and  read  his  Bible  by  it 
while  entering  the  Boca  Grande. 

We  learned  also  in  this  exchange  of  facts  and 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  65 

ideas  that  among  the  men  the  general  impression 
prevailed  that  we  were  going  to  have  a  battle  in 
the  dark,  with  all  its  shadowy  dangers  of  firing 
at  friend  or  foe.  When  the  real  spectacular  pro 
gramme  broke  on  them,  the  deck  officers  said  the 
relief  of  the  men  was  positively  touching.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  most  of  the  fellows 
had  never  been  under  fire,  but  when  once  the 
battle  did  begin,  they,  despite  the  fever  of  fight 
that  was  burning  in  their  veins,  acted  with  the 
precision  of  veterans.  Once  in  it  they  did  not 
want  to  stop.  Down  on  our  decks  we  could  hear 
subdued  groans,  the  broad  sense  of  which  was, 
"Oh,  let's  finish  it  up, "  but  when  the  news  spread 
that  the  Commodore  was  only  taking  wind  be 
tween  the  rounds,  it  was  no  longer  possible  to 
restrain  them,  nor  for  a  moment  or  two  was 
there  any  attempt  to  exact  the  strict  enforcement 
of  discipline.  All  over  the  decks  the  Jackies 
could  be  seen  slapping  each  other  on  the  back, 
shaking  hands  and  doing  a  few  steps  of  horn 
pipe,  and  this  I  verily  believe  not  because  there 
was  not  a  man  missing  from  any  mess,  but  be 
cause  they  were  going  to  fight  again. 

There  was  need,  however,  for  the  interlude. 
As  I  have  said  the  smoke  of  battle  had  grown  so 
thick  that  signals  could  not  be  seen,  and  the 
Commodore  had  no  idea  of  letting  anything  in- 


66  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

terferewith  his  programme.  He  had  started  out 
to  destroy  the  Spanish  fleet  and  he  was  going  to 
do  it.  It  was  turning  out  to  be  an  easier  task 
than  he  had  anticipated,  and  having  rattled  his 
antagonist  in  the  first  round,  he  quietly  con 
cluded  that  there  was  no  occasion  to  rush  matters, 
and  that  as  the  men  had  been  fighting  on  a  single 
cup  of  coffee  all  round  and  it  was  a  hot  morning, 
it  was  just  as  well  to  haul  off  a  little  while  for 
needed  refreshment.  To  be  sure  it  gave  the  enemy 
also  a  breathing  spell,  but  the  Commodore  was 
too  generous  a  fighter  to  begrudge  them  that. 
Besides  it  was  a  positive  mercy  to  the  men  in  the 
turrets. 

It  had  been  bad  enough  for  us;  breathing  the 
powder  smoke;  clinging  to  the  railings  as  the 
ship  shivered  and  shook  after  each  discharge; 
exposed,  of  course,  to  the  enemy's  fire  and 
scampering  back  and  forward  as  occasion  re 
quired,  but  we  were  in  the  open  and  could,  in  a 
degree,  see  what  was  going  on.  So,  too,  could 
the  men  behind  the  shield  guns;  because,  not 
withstanding  precautionary  orders,  as  the  fight 
proceeded  the  Jackies  persisted  in  running  out 
to  watch  the  effect  of  their  shots  and  to  see  gen 
erally  how  things  were  getting  along.  But  think 
what  it  must  have  been  for  the  men  in  the  tur 
rets.  Take  for  instance  the  forward  turret  of  the 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  67 

Olympia  on  that  broiling  hot  Sunday  morning  in 
the  tropics. 

In  the  turret  were  the  two  eight-inch  guns  and 
twelve  Yankee  gunners,  guns  and  men  occupy 
ing  about  every  available  inch  of  space.  Above 
them  and  between  the  guns  rose  the  platform  of 
the  conning  tower  where  Captain  Gridley  and  his 
assistant  perched.  The  roar  of  the  guns  with 
their  ear-splitting  concussions,  and  the  occa 
sional  crash  of  a  Spanish  shell  on  the  turret,  and 
the  hard,  hard  work  of  manning  the  guns  in  that 
confined  and  vibrating  air,  make  up  a  combination 
of  trials  of  which  the  man  who  has  not  experi 
enced  it  can  form  no  possible  idea. 

Would  you  like  to  know  what  it  is  that  the 
man  behind  a  turret  gun  has  to  do  ?  The  turret 
crew  is  mustered  six  for  each  gun,  captain,  plug- 
man,  loader,  sponger,  liftman,  and  shellman. 
Each  man  knows  exactly  what  his  duties  are  and 
has  been  drilled  and  drilled  into  them  until  he 
has  become  an  automaton — but  an  automaton 
only  so  far  as  his  actions  are  concerned,  for  back 
of  and  urging  on  these  lies  the  great,  brave, 
fighting  heart  of  the  man.  The  crew  is  kept  on 
deck  up  to  the  very  last  instant  before  entering 
the  turret  and  when  once  there,  not  a  word  ex 
cept  that  of  the  division  officer  is  heard.  The 
twelve  half-naked  men  stand  like  statues  beside 
the  great  machines  of  death. 


68  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

The  order  "Cast  loose  and  provide"  is  heard 
and  the  twelve  machines  spring  into  action.  The 
breech  is  opened,  elevating  gear  inspected,  lash 
ings  cast  off,  loading  trays  inspected,  firing 
locks  prepared,  slides  placed,  priming  wires  cor 
rectly  disposed,  and  all  of  the  delicate  parapher 
nalia  that  make  up  a  modern  gun,  inspected. 

Again  the  men  become  twelve  machines  and 
the  order  "Load"  is  given.  Up  from  the  maga 
zine  is  hauled  the  projectile  and  placed  on  the 
loading  tray.  The  great  shell  is  pushed  home 
and  by  the  time  this  is  done  the  powder  load  has 
been  placed  behind  it.  Gas  checks  and  screw 
locks  are  adjusted,  the  breech  is  locked  home, 
the  primer  inserted,  the  lanyard  hooked  and  the 
lock  cocked. 

Then  comes  the  sighting,  the  man  for  this  duty 
being  one  of  selection.  Sometimes  there  is  a 
man  on  ship  who  can  point  one  of  these  monster 
guns  with  the  accuracy  of  a  Texas  ranger,  and 
can  do  nothing  else  well.  Sometimes  it  is  an 
officer  who  has  a  good  eye,  but  in  every  case  the 
man  at  the  sight  thinks  himself,  and  is  the  pivot 
man  of  the  engagement.  The  order  to  "Fire" 
rings  out,  the  lanyard  is  pulled  and  the  thunder 
bolt  is  on  its  way. 

Six  shots  a  minute  blazed  out  of  the  Olympia's 
turret;  the  powder  smoke  poured  through  the 


COM.     N.     MAYO    DYER 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  69 

portholes  in  a  choking  sineach;  with  each  dis 
charge  the  turret  shook  and  rocked  as  though  in 
an  earthquake ;  the  air  was  shaken  with  a  con 
tinuous  crash  and  thunder;  but  through  it  all 
the  orders  "Sponge,"  "Load,"  "Point,"  "Fire," 
went  on  and  the  twelve  reeking,  choking,  quiver 
ing  men  went  on,  with  their  labors — labors  that 
chipped  off  a  year  of  each  man's  life  every 
instant.  No  wonder  that  when  the  first  round 
was  over  the  turret-men  crept  out  into  the  open 
like  so  many  victims  of  a  colliery  explosion — 
blackened,  gasping,  air-beating  things.  All 
honor,  then,  to  "the  men  behind  the  guns." 

Preparations  for  the  second  round  were  con 
ducted  in  the  most  business-like  fashion.  The 
Commodore  had  decided  on  three  hours'  rest, 
and  this  being  ample  time  for  all  the  preparatory 
work  needed  there  was  no  hurry,  nor  was  there 
any  waste.  First  of  all,  all  hands  were  piped  to 
breakfast.  It  was  a  hearty,  cheery  feast,  and 
while  I  am  not  historian  enough  to  have  the 
details  of  every  great  combat  at  my  pen's  point, 
it  strikes  me  that  this  deliberate  hauling  off  and 
sitting  down  to  breakfast  in  the  middle  of  a  sea- 
fight,  with  the  calm  knowledge  that  the  other  fel 
low  would  not,  or  could  not  interrupt  it,  and  l 
that  when  we  had  finished  and  the  dishes  were 
all  cleared  away  we  could  start  in  anew  and  finish 


TO  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

up  the  job,  stands  as  a  situation  unique  in  the 
chronicles  of  maritime  warfare.  Here  were  two 
fleets  in  deadly  opposition.  Between  the  fleets 
there  was  a  fight  in  progress  on  whose  upshot 
the  history  of  two  nations  in  the  Orient  de 
pended.  One  fleet  lay  over  in  the  shelter  of 
forts  that  were  still  a  fighting  force,  with  con 
fusion  aboard  and  a  desperate  outlook  ahead; 
while  the  other  fleet  lay  over  here,  just  out  of 
range,  unconcernedly  eating  breakfast. 

Breakfast  being  over  there  was  a  general  clean 
up  of  men,  decks  and  guns,  the  ammunition 
rooms  were  refilled,  fleet  orders  issued  and  the 
engines  inspected. 

"Everything  all  right,  Lamberton?"  asked  the 
Commodore. 

"  Every  thing,  I  believe,  sir,"  replied  Lamber 
ton. 

"Very  well.  Call  to  quarters  and  get  under 
way. ' ' 

The  boatswains'  whistles  and  the  marine  drums 
shrilled  and  dubbed.  And  at  10 :45  every  man 
was  at  his  post  and  we  were  off  for  the  second 
round. 


With  Devvey  at  Manila.  71 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SECO  ND    EOUND . 

BEFORE  Captain  Nehemiah  M.  Dyer  of  the  Bal 
timore  went  over  the  ship's  side  to  his  launch  I 
noticed  that  he  was  talking  very  earnestly  to  the 
Commodore.  These  two  had  been  friends  for 
many  years.  Both  New  Englanders,  both  grad 
uates  in  the  hard  school  of  experience.  Dyer 
had  never  been  to  Annapolis,  but  he  had  served 
on  land  and  sea.  He  had  shown  during  the  Civil 
War  what  wonderfully  effective  things  could  be 
done  by  a  fleet  of  gunboats  and  though  no  acade 
mician  was  as  good  a  fighter  as  the  president  of 
any  Board  of  Strategy.  The  talk  between  the  two 
men  ended  with  a  nod  of  acquiescence  on  the 
part  of  the  Commodore  followed  by  a  handshake. 
Captain  Dyer  had  not  reached  his  ship  before  we 
knew  what  the  subject  of  the  conversation  had 
been  and  what  its  result.  For,  turning  to  his 
flag  officer,  the  Commodore  instructed  him  to  run 
up  the  signals  that  the  Baltimore  would  lead  in 
the  second  round. 

The   programme   for  the   second   act  of    the 


T2  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

tragedy, — and  liere  again  everything  was  laid 
down  with  the  exactness  of  a  time  table, — was  that 
we  were  to  finish  up  the  enemy's  fleet,  taking 
one  ship  after  another,  and  then  attend  to  the 
forts.  Again  we  sailed  around  to  the  Manila 
channel,  and  as  we  drew  near  the  Spaniards  we 
saw  that  the  Cristina,  the  Castilla,  and  the  trans 
port  Mindanao,  which  latter  had  been  beached 
about  midway  between  Cavite  and  Manila,  were 
all  ablaze,  and  that  their  crews  were  busy  as  so 
many  ants  trying  to  put  out  the  flames. 

The  condition  of  the  Spanish  flagship  was 
most  pitiable.  Her  duel  with  the  Olympia,  and 
the  raking  which  she  had  received  when  turning 
to  seek  cover,  I  have  described.  Every  attempt 
had  been  made  during  the  breathing  spell  to  put 
her  into  some  sort  of  shape,  but  evidently  without 
success;  for  before  we  had  commenced  firing  the 
second  time  we  saw  Admiral  Montojo  transfer 
ring  his  flag  from  the  Cristina  to  the  Isla  de 
Cuba.  Others  saw  it  also,  and  from  the  McCul- 
loch  came  her  launch  shooting  and  snipping 
through  the  bay  and  making  for  the  Olympia. 
She  had  on  board  Lieutenants  Calkins  and  Nel 
son,  who  came  with  the  petition  to  the  Commo 
dore  that  he  would  allow  them  to  make  a  dash 
for  the  admiral's  gig  and  capture  the  Spaniard 
in  transit,  The  Commodore,  however,  had  to 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  73 

refuse,  as  he  knew  that  should  such  an  attempt 
be  made  every  Spanish  gun  would  be  turned 
upon  the  launch  and  she  would  simply  be  blown 
out  of  the  water. 

The  Baltimore,  following  Captain  Dyer's 
straight-to-the-point  tactics,  headed  for  the 
Cristina  and  Austria.  As  she  came  within  range 
she  caught  all  of  the  Spanish  fire  that  was  left 
on  board  those  two  ships.  It  seemed  that  in  their 
desperation  the  Spaniards  fired  better  at  this 
time  than  they  had  in  the  earlier  morning,  for 
one  of  the  foreigner's  shells  exploded  on  the  Balti 
more's  deck  wounding  five  men  with  the  splin 
ters.  No  reply  came  from  the  Baltimore.  A 
few  minutes  passed  and  another  shell  plunked  on 
the  Baltimore's  decks,  and  three  other  men  were 
hit.  Still  the  Baltimore  did  not  reply.  Shells 
plunged  about  her  until  she  seemed  plowing 
through  a  park  of  fountains.  Then,  when  she 
reached  about  a  three-thousand-yard  range,  she 
swung  and  poured  a  broadside  into  the  Eeina 
Cristina.  I  really  believe  that  every  shot  must 
have  told,  for  the  former  flagship  seemed  literally 
to  crumble  at  the  discharge.  The  smoke  clouds 
hid  everything  for  a  minute  or  two,  but  when 
they  lifted  we  saw  the  Cristina  blow  up,  and  the 
waters  about  her  beaten  with  a  rain  of  descend 
ing  fragments  and  men.  Under  that  shrieking, 


74  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

roaring  discharge  of  the  Baltimore's,  Captain 
Cadarso  and  many  of  his  men  were  killed. 
When  the  rain  of  her  fragments  had  ceased  the 
Cristina  settled  and  sank,  the  remainder  of  her 
crew  jumping  overboard  and  swimming  for  the 
nearest  consort. 

The  Spanish  navy  being  less  the  Cristina,  the 
Baltimore  then  turned  her  attention  to  the  San 
Juan  de  Austria,  the  Olympia  and  Ealeigh  steam 
ing  up  to  complete  the  destruction  in  as  merci 
fully  brief  a  time  as  possible.  The  three  cruisers 
poured  a  continuous  stream  of  deadly  steel  into 
the  Spaniard,  which  rocked  under  the  smashing. 
The  Spaniard  replied  as  best  she  might,  but  in 
the  midst  of  it  all  there  came  a  roar  that  drowned 
all  previous  noises.  A  shell  from  the  Raleigh 
had  struck  the  Spaniard's  magazine  and  exploded 
it.  Up  shot  the  Austria's  decks  in  the  flaming 
volcano,  and  so  terrific  was  the  explosion  that  the 
flying  fragments  of  the  cruiser  actually  tore 
away  all  the  upper  works  of  the  gunboat  El 
Correo  which  lay  beside  her.  The  Austria  was  a 
sinking  wreck  and  El  Correo  was  so  nearly  one 
that  as  a  coup  de  grace  the  Petrel  steamed  up 
close  to  the  Spanish  gunboat  and  put  her  out  of 
misery  and  existence. 

A  gunboat,  which  we  learned  afterward  was 
the  General  Lezo,  had  been  quite  active  during 


I 


If 


*  sz-si 

c/i       ££  ° 


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O  u>>~'(«  3 

I  {III 


5.5  «  5 

CGS  a 

I 


"With  Dewey  at  Manila.  75 

the  cannonade  on  the  Don  Juan  de  Austria,  and 
Commander  Walker  of  the  Concord,  seeing  this, 
turned  his  attention  to  the  small  Spaniard,  and 
with  a  few  well-directed  shells  soon  silenced 
her.  She  made  for  the  shore,  but  before  she 
had  reached  it  was  ablaze,  her  crew  taking  to  the  I 
water. 

The  cruisers  Velasco  and  Castilla  were  the  next 
of  the  enemy's  ships  to  be  wiped  out.  The 
Boston  gave  the  Velasco  special  attention,  Cap 
tain  Wildes,  still  fanning  himself  vigorously, 
swinging  his  ship  around  until  he  could  give  the 
Spaniard  a  broadside.  When  he  had  fired  the 
Velasco  listed  heavily  to  port,  showing  the 
jagged  rents  in  her  starboard  side  as  she  did  so, 
then  careened  to  the  starboard  and  went  down 
smoking,  with  barely  time  enough  for  her  crew 
to  throw  over  their  boats  and  make  for  the 
shore.  The  Castilla  had  been  set  on  fire  in  the 
first  onslaught,  and  when  the  Concord  and  Balti 
more  poured  their  tremendous  weight  of  shells 
into  her,  she  was  scuttled  in  order  to  prevent  the 
magazine  from  exploding. 

Every  ship  in  the  Spanish  fleet,  with  one  ex 
ception  fought  most  valiantly,  but  to  the  Don 
Antonio  de  Ulloa  and  her  commander  Robion 
should  be  given  the  palm  for  that  sort  of  desper 
ate  courage  and  spirit  which  leads  a  man  to  die 


76  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

fighting.  The  flagship  and  Boston  were  the  exe 
cutioners.  Under  their  shells  the  Ulloa  was 
soon  burning  in  half  a  dozen  places;  but  her 
fighting  crew  gave  no  signs  of  surrender.  Shot 
after  shot  struck  the  Spaniard's  hull,  until  it 
was  riddled  like  a  sieve.  Shell  after  shell  swept 
her  upper  decks,  until  under  the  awful  fire  all  of 
her  upper  guns  were  useless ;  but  there  was  no 
sign  of  surrender.  The  main  deck  crew  escaped, 
but  the  captain  and  his  officers  clung  to  their 
wreck.  On  the  lower  deck  her  gun  crews  stuck 
to  their  posts  like  the  heroes  they  were.  As  shot 
after  shot  struck  the  shivering  hulk,  and  still  her 
lower  guns  answered  back  as  best  they  might,  it 
seemed  as  though  it  was  impossible  to  kill  her. 
At  last  we  noticed  her  in  the  throes,  that  sicken 
ing  unmistakable  lurch  of  a  sinking  ship.  Her 
commander  noticed  it,  too ;  still  there  was  no 
surrender.  Instead,  he  nailed  the  Spanish 
ensign  to  what  was  left  of  the  mast  and  the  Don 
Antonio  de  Ulloa  went  down,  not  only  with  her 
colors  flying,  but  also  with  her  lower  guns  still 
roaring  defiance.  It  was  a  brave  death  and  I  am 
sure  ever  man  in  the  squadron  would  have  liked 
to  have  shaken  Commander  Robion  by  the  hand, 
Don  though  he  be  of  the  same  nation  that  bred 
Weyler. 

Just  as  the  picture  of  the  Ulloa's  end  is  luridly 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  77 

bright,  so  that  of  another  ship  is  gloomily 
dark.  For  the  sake  of  her  gallant  mates,  this 
ship  shall  be  nameless.  She  had  hauled  down 
her  colors  about  the  same  time  that  the  Ulloa  had 
refused  to  do  so  and  had  gone  down  with  them  all 
a-flutter.  A  boat's  crew  from  the  McCulloch  was 
signaled  to  go  and  take  possession  of  this  name 
less  ship,  when  to  our  amazement  she  opened  fire 
on  the  approaching  gig.  The  ensign  stood  up  in 
the  stern  in  open-mouthed  wonder  at  such  a 
piece  of  treachery,  but  kept  his  boat  along  her 
course.  The  incident  had  not  passed  unob 
served  by  the  squadron,  however,  and  the  Span 
iard's  fate  was  a  swift  one.  There  was  no  need 
for  the  Commodore  to  fly  a  signal,  for  it  was  as 
with  a  common  impulse  that  every  one  of  our 
vessels  stopped  firing  at  the  enemy  in  general 
and  directed  every  available  shot  at  that  Spaniard 
in  particular.  The  bay  leaped  up  and  foamed 
around  the  traitorous  vessel  as  though  it  had 
been  struck  by  the  whip  end  of  a  Texas  tornado, 
and  when  the  waters  were  at  rest  again  the  Span 
iard  had  vanished  as  completely  as  though  that 
tornado  had  carried  her  bodily  into  a  neighbor 
ing  State. 

Of  course  there  were  other  incidents  in  this 
resumption  of  the  fight,  which  I  have  referred  to 
as  the  second  round,  but  as  the  firing  grew  faster 


78  With  De\vey  at  Manila. 

and  more  furious  and  as  the  smoke  settled  down 
again  it  was  again  almost  impossible  to  distinguish 
exact  and  particular  acts.  Ship  after  ship  was 
sunk  or  burned,  until  poor  old  Don  Patricio 
Montojo  y  Parason,  looking  around  him  and  see 
ing  but  the  shattered  and  blackened  remnants  of 
his  fleet,  while  on  the  Isla  de  Cuba  the  guns  stood 
useless  and  the  decks  deserted,  hauled  down 
his  colors  and,  together  with  the  surviving  Span 
iards,  hastily  escaped  from  the  sinking  and  burn 
ing  hulk,  admiral  and  officers  alike  leaving 
behind  them  all  their  personal  property  and  val 
uables.  Once  on  shore  Montojo,  with  his  staff, 
made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Manila ;  in  the  com 
pany,  I  presume,  of  those  who  had  driven  out  to 
see  the  sudden  end  of  the  Yankee. 

The  fleet  having  been  disposed  of,  our  vessels 
next  turned  their  attention  to  the  batteries, 
which  still  kept  firing,  notwithstanding  Monto- 
jo's  surrender.  The  most  pertinacious  of  the 
forts  was  one  low  down  on  Sangley  Point,  which 
lies  about  opposite  to  the  Cavite  spit,  and 
which  was  armed  with  two  Hontorio  guns,  which 
I  imagine  must  have  been  taken  from  the  fleet. 
There  were  some  pretty  good  gunners  behind 
the  Hontorios,  one  of  the  shells  striking  the 
Boston  and  another  smashing  the  whaleboat  of 
the  Raleigh.  We  managed  to  cripple  one  of 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  79 

these  guns,  but  it  was  not  until  the  Raleigh  had 
sailed  in  to  about  one  thousand  yards  and  had 
killed  six  of  the  gunners  that  the  second  was 
silenced. 

One  after  the  other  of  the  remaining  shore 
batteries  was  settled,  and  then  at  12 :45  came 
what  may  be  called  the  knockout  blow.  The 
bastions  of  the  Cavite  forts  had  been  crumbling 
under  the  shells  of  the  Boston,  Baltimore,  and 
Concord,  while  the  Kaleigh,  Olympia,  and  Petrel 
had  been  devoting  themselves  to  the  reduction  of 
the  arsenal.  After  half  an  hour's  fight  of  this 
sort  the  Cavite  gunners  evidently  became  de 
moralized  and  began  to  fire  wildly.  Those  guns 
left  in  position  continued  firing,  however,  until 
at  their  back  there  was  a  thunderous  roar  followed 
by  a  heart-shaking  concussion.  A  shell  from  either 
the  Olympia  or  the  Petrel,  and  the  honor  is  still 
a  matter  of  dispute  between  Gunner  Corcoran  of 
the  flagship  and  Gunner  Vining  of  the  gunboat, 
had  landed  in  the  arsenal  magazine.  With  the 
upward  rush  of  flames,  fragments  and  dead,  the 
heart  of  the  Spaniard  went  out  of  him,  a  white 
flag  was  run  up  at  the  Cavite  citadel  and  the 
battle  of  Manila  was  over. 

Up  went  the  Commodore's  signals  to  " Cease 
firing,"  but  before  they  could  be  read  the  Petrel 
had  sent  in  what  was  the  last  shot  of  the  battle. 


80  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

Again  the  signal  to  sail  back  to  the  rendezvous 
was  flown,  but  this  time  as  we  passed  Manila  the 
great  Krupp  guns  at  the  Luneta  fort  were  silent. 
Even  those  gunners  had  learned  their  lesson. 
When  we  reached  the  Nanshan  and  Zafiro,  the 
Olympia  halted  and  all  the  ships  steamed  slowly 
past  her,  with  the  men  at  quarters  cheering  and 
saluting.  Then  each  ship  fell  in  line  and  was 
saluted  and  cheered  by  the  others  and  took  its 
turn  in  cheering  back,  but  when  all  were  in  line 
except  the  Petrel,  and  that  perky  little  craft 
steamed  by,  the  rest  of  the  squadron  so  roared 
and  yelled  at  her  that  Captain  Wood  blushed  a 
fine  purple  under  his  tan,  and  all  the  Jackies  of 
the  gunboat  strutted  and  bowed  back  like  so 
many  conquering  heroes. 

They  deserved  it  all,  for  from  first  to  last  the 
little  Petrel  had  been  a  David  in  the  fight.  The 
Commodore  had  noticed  that  three  smaller  ves 
sels  of  the  enemy  were  making  up  to  the  head  of 
Cavite  Bay  and  had  signaled  her  with  the  Boston 
and  Concord  to  go  after  them.  The  two  cruisers 
had,  however,  found  the  waters  of  the  inner 
harbor  too  shallow  for  them  and  had  returned, 
but  the  Petrel  with  her  light  draft  had  been 
enabled  to  follow  quite  closely  into  shore.  One 
of  the  small  ships  in  there  was  the  gunboat  Mar 
ques  del  Duero,  and  getting  the  one-thousand- 


COM.    ASA    WALKER 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  81 

yard  range  the  Petrel  fired  at  her  with  the  swift 
ness  and  accuracy  of  a  first-class  target  drill. 
The  Duero  having  been  disposed  of,  the  little 
Petrel  then  took  up  the  fate  of  the  two  gunboats, 
the  Quiros  and  Villalobos.  The  Spaniards  could 
not  understand  how  one  little  gunboat  could 
make  things  so  desperately  hot  for  them,  and  in 
order  to  solve  the  problem  they  scuttled  and  set 
fire  to  their  boats  and  then  went  ashore  to  think 
it  over. 

It  was  the  Petrel,  too,  that  on  returning  from 
this  little  adventure  ran  across  the  store-ship 
Manila  hiding  behind  a  convenient  wharf  and 
captured  her,  the  prize  being  valued  at  half  a 
million  dollars,  including  six  hundred  tons  of 
coal. 

Again  the  commanders  were  called  over  to  the 
flagship  and  again  stock  was  taken.  Again  came 
the  reports :  not  a  gun  overthrown,  not  a  vessel 
disabled,  not  a  man  killed.  There  was  not  so 
much  of  the  ecstatic  on  the  receipt  of  this  second 
series  of  reports  as  there  had  been  on  the  receipt 
of  the  first.  We  were  getting  used  to  it — get 
ting  accustomed  to  this  laying  out  of  the  other 
party  without  receiving  a  scratch.  Scarcely 
that,  however,  for  the  two  shots  that  had  struck 
the  Baltimore  had  wounded  two  officers  and  six 
men.  Lieutenant  F.  W.  Kellogg,  Ensign  U.  E. 


82  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

Erwin,  and  the  enlisted  men  Barlow,  Budingei*, 
Covert,  O'Keefe,  Recciardilli  and  Snelgrove  con 
stituted  our  list  of  wounded,  but  their  injuries 
were  so  slight  that  not  one  of  them  would  stay 
in  the  sick-bay.  As  it  was,  six  out  of  these  eight 
were  literally  wounded  by  our  own  ammunition, 
for  the  first  Spanish  shell  that  struck  the  Balti 
more  exploded  a  box  of  three-pound  ammunition, 
and  it  was  the  flight  of  these  that  knocked  our 
men  down. 

And  on  the  Spanish  side  it  had  been  a  defeat 
that  was  as  crushing  and  fatal  as  our  victor}"  had 
been  decisive  and  easy.  The  first  round  had 
meant  confusion  and  dismay  to  the  Spaniards; 
the  second  round  had  brought  them  extinction, 
annihilation.  The  Spanish  fleet  had  indeed  been 
destroyed.  The  fate  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  to 
gether  with  their  commanders,  in  list  form,  is  as 
follows : 

CRUISERS. 

/     Eeina  Cristina,  Captain  Cadarso,  sunk. 

Castilla,   Captain  Martin  de  Olivia,  sunk  and 
ClJ          burned. 

Don  Antonio  de  Ulloa,  Commander  Robion, 
sunk  and  burned. 

Don  Juan  de  Austria,  Commander  Concha, 
burned. 

Isla  de  Luzon,  Commander  Barreto,  burned. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  83 

Isla  de  Cuba,  Commander  Rigalado,  burned. 
Velasco,  Captain  Reboul,  burned  and  sunk. 

GUNBOATS. 

Marques  del  Duero,  Captain  Morens,  burned. 
General  Lezo,  Captain  Beneveste,  burned. 
El  Correo,  Captain  Eccudero,  burned. 
Quiros  and  Villalobos,  scuttled  and  set  on  fire 
by  the  Spaniards. 

TRANSPORTS. 

Mindanao,  run  ashore  to  save  from  sinking — 
burned. 

Manila,  captured. 

The  two  gunboats  which  were  destroyed  be 
longed  to  the  transport  Mindanao.  And  in  addi 
tion  to  this  list  there  were  some  small  steamers 
which  were  scuttled  by  the  Spaniards  and  whose 
names  are  yet  unknown.  The  loss  of  life  on  the 
Spanish  side  will  also  remain  unknown  for  some 
time  at  least,  I  imagine.  At  first  we  heard  that 
one  hundred  and  thirty  were  killed  and  ninety 
wounded  on  board  the  flagship,  chiefly  in  her 
duel  with  the  Olympia;  that  when  the  Cavite 
arsenal  exploded  it  killed  forty,  and  that  alto 
gether  there  were  about  one  thousand  killed  and 
wounded.  Montojo's  estimate  as  reported  to 
Governor-General  Augusti  was : 


84  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

On  the  ships.  In  the  forts. 

Killed,  400  24 

Wounded,  60  150 


460  174 

The  monetary  loss  to  Spain  must  have  been 
many  millions, — I  hear  it  placed  at  from  $6,000,- 
000  to  $10,000,000 — but  more  than  all  was  the  fact 
that  in  losing  this  battle  she  lost  the  control  of 
the  Philippines  and  her  position  as  the  mistress 
of  an  Asiatic  colony. 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  85 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   BEGINNING    OF    THE    END. 

THOUGH  the  fight  was  won  much  remained  to 
be  done,  and  the  Commodore  set  about  doing  that 
in  the  same  quiet,  matter-of-fact  way  that  had 
characterized  his  conduct  of  the  victory.  We 
knew  that  the  people  at  Washington  would  be 
anxious  to  know  the  result  of  the  expedition  and 
that  there  was  a  cable  landing  at  Manila  over 
which,  we  felt  confident,  Augusti  was  crowding 
messages  to  Madrid  giving  his  version  of  the 
affair.  After  the  second  rest,  therefore,  the  Com 
modore  sent  word  to  the  governor-general  by 
the  British  consul  who  had  come  to  visit  us,  that 
Manila  was  in  a  state  of  blockade;  that  he,  the 
Commodore,  proposed  to  occupy  Cavite ;  that  if 
a  single  shot  were  fired  against  his  ships  he 
would  destroy  every  battery  around  the  bay; 
and  that  unless  he  were  allowed  to  use  the  cable 
he  would  cut  it.  The  cable  people  were  willing 
to  transmit  our  messages,  but  the  governor- 
general  ordered  the  officials  neither  to  receive 
nor  transmit  anything  from  us.  Accordingly 


86  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

the  Commodore  cut  the  cable  on  Monday  after 
noon,  and  cut  it,  too,  just  as  a  message  was  being 
sent  by  Augusti  that  the  Spanish  fleet  had  been 
"disabled,"  and  that  "the  Americans  had  with 
drawn  to  bury  their  dead." 

We  took  a  rest  on  Sunday  evening,  but 
Monday  was  a  busy  day  for  us.  Early  in  the 
morning  a  tug  came  steaming  up  the  bay,  bear 
ing  a  flag  of  truce  from  the  commandant  of  Cor- 
regidor.  Accompanying  the  flag  of  truce  was  an 
offer  from  the  commandant  to  surrender.  The 
tug  was  sent  over  to  the  Baltimore  with  instruc 
tions  to  steam  ahead  and  the  cruiser  was 
dispatched  to  take  possession  of  the  entrance 
forts  or  to  blow  them  into  the  air  at  the  least 
sign  of  treachery  or  resistance.  There  was  no 
necessity  for  this  precaution,  for  when  Corregi- 
dor  was  reached  the  commandant  was  found 
alone,  his  men  having  deserted  and  the  guns 
having  been  overthrown. 

About  the  same  time  Commander  Lamberton 
was  ordered  to  go  and  take  possession  of  Cavite 
arsenal.  It  was  decided  to  use  the  Petrel  for 
this  work,  and  the  gunboat  ran  in  to  about 
five  hundred  yards  and  then  halted  in  amaze. 
The  white  flag  had  been  hoisted  on  Sunday  after 
noon  following  the  explosion  of  the  magazine,  it 
will  be  remembered,  and  Lamberton  naturally 


"  £  2 


•       >-?».«•« 


h  r  =5  <«  5 


c  =  »*" 
a  =•=  2* 

S--   S  5 

CSS  bo 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  87 

imagined  that  this  had  indicated  an  uncondi 
tional  surrender.  Instead  of  a  deserted  place, 
however,  he  saw  that  the  landing  was  crowded 
with  armed  sailors.  In  view  of  this  new  situa 
tion  the  Petrel's  guns  were  trained  on  the 
arsenal,  and  Lamberton,  together  with  Wood  of 
the  Petrel,  took  a  launch  for  the  landing  place 
and  left  instructions  that  unless  they  returned  in 
an  hour  the  gunboat  was  to  open  on  the  arsenal. 
When  Lamberton  and  Wood  landed  they  were 
met  by  Captain  Sostoa  of  the  Spanish  navy,  who 
informed  Lamberton  that  in  the  absence  of  the 
admiral,  who  had  retired  to  Manila,  he  was  in 
command.  The  armed  Spanish  sailors  closed 
around  the  party  and  our  men  and  Sostoa 
marched  to  the  arsenal  headquarters. 

"May  I  ask,  captain,"  said  Lamberton,  "why 
your  men  are  under  arms  after  yesterday's  sur 
render?" 

"There  was  no  surrender,"  replied  Sostoa. 

This  answer  made  Lamberton  think  pretty 
quickly  and  he  began  to  see  that  there  were  more 
ramifications  to  the  Spanish  character  than  he 
had  dreamed  of. 

"But,"  said  he,  "the  white  flag  was  hoisted. " 

"Yes,"  replied  Sostoa,  "but  not  as  a  surren 
der,  only  as  a,  token  of  truce  during  which  we 


88  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

might  remove  our  women  and  children  to  a  place 
of  safety." 

"But,  captain,"  said  Lamberton,  as  evenly  as 
he  could,  "an  arsenal  is  not  exactly  the  place  for 
women  and  children  in  times  of  war.  They 
should  have  been  removed  before  the  bombard 
ment  began." 

"Ah,  well,  you  see,"  said  Captain  Sostoa, 
with  a  shrug  of  deprecation,  "you  Americans 
came  in  to  visit  us  at  such  an  extremely  early 
hour  that  we  had  no  time  to  remove  our  women 
and  children.  If  you  had  begun  the  fight  at  a 
less  unreasonable  hour " 

"Excuse  me,  captain,"  said  Lamberton,  who 
was  beginning  to  feel  the  heat  of  the  morning, 
"you  fired  the  first  shot.  But  there  is  no  use 
talking  of  past  events,  nor  is  it  my  place  to  do 
so.  I  am  sent  here  as  the  representative  of  Com 
modore  Dewey  of  the  United  States  Asiatic  Squad 
ron  to  take  possession  of  this  arsenal,  and  my 
further  instructions  are  that  all  Spaniards,  whom 
I  find  here,  must  surrender  their  arms  and  per 
sons  as  prisoners  of  war.  If  this  is  not  done, 
and  done  quickly,  the  engagement  will  be 
renewed." 

To  this  direct  message  Sostoa  evasively  replied 
that  he  could  do  nothing  without  consulting  his 
superior,  and  upon  Lamberton 's  telling  him  that 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  89 

he,  Sostoa,  would  be  regarded  as  sufficiently 
representative,  the  elusive  captain  requested 
that  the  terms  of  surrender  might  be  put  down 
in  writing.  Lamberton  glanced  at  his  watch. 
Forty  of  the  sixty  minutes  had  elapsed  and  in 
twenty  more  the  Petrel's  guns  would  be  bang 
ing  away,  and  while  Lamberton  and  Wood  knew 
very  well  what  the  issue  of  the  new  fight  would 
be,  so  far  as  the  fleet  and  arsenal  were  con 
cerned,  they  had  an  uneasy  misgiving  that  their 
share  in  it  would  be  a  decidedly  unknown  quan 
tity.  It  was  with  no  unnecessary  search  for 
phrases,  therefore,  that  Lamberton  wrote  down 
these  terms: 

"Without  further  delay  all  Spanish  officers 
and  men  must  be  withdrawn,  and  no  buildings  or 
stores  must  be  injured.  As  Commodore  Dewey 
does  not  wish  further  hostility  with  the  Spanish 
naval  forces,  the  Spanish  officers  will  be  paroled 
and  the  forces  at  the  arsenal  will  deliver  all  their 
small  arms." 

The  conversation  had  been  in  Spanish  but  the 
conditions  were  written  in  English,  and  Sostoa 
wanted  them  translated  and  clearly  explained. 
Again  Lamberton  looked  at  his  watch.  Five 
minutes  of  the  hour  only  remained.  Things 
were  getting  critical.  Sostoa  was  pleading  for 
more  time  when  Lamberton  broke  in  on  him. 


90  "With  Dewej  at  Manila. 

"Excuse  me,  captain,"  he  said,  "but  there  is 
an  absolute  reason  why  I  should  return  at  once 
to  the  vessel.  I  will  give  you  until  noon  and  if 
on  that  hour  the  white  flag  is  not  again  hoisted 
over  this  arsenal  we  shall  again  open  fire.  Good- 
inorning. " 

It  was  not  far  to  the  landing,  but  both  Lam- 
berton  and  Wood  agreed  that  the  effort  they 
made  to  repress  all  outward  evidence  of  haste, 
coupled  with  their  knowledge  that  if  they  did 
not  get  on  board  the  launch  and  steam  away 
during  the  next  minute  or  two  they  would  not 
get  there  at  all,  made  up  a  situation  of  what  the 
dramatist  calls  "suppressed  emotion,"  which 
was  very  exciting  as  long  as  it  lasted.  They 
reached  the  landing  and  the  launch  just  in  time; 
for  as  they  put  off  from  the  steps  they  could  see 
the  men  moving  into  position  around  the  Petrel's 
guns  in  a  way  that  meant  mischief. 

The  situation  had  its  comedy  ending.  Cap 
tain  Sostoa  did  not  wait  for  noon,  but  hoisted 
the  white  flag  at  a  quarter  to  eleven ;  and  when 
Lamberton  returned  to  take  possession  he  found 
that  that  punctilious  Don  had  marched  off  to 
Manila  with  every  man,  and  that  every  man  had 
taken  his  rifle. 

No  sooner  had  the  Spaniards  evacuated  Cavite 
than  the  natives,  who  must  have  been  lurking  in 


With  Dewey  at  Manila.  91 

crowds  among  the  bushes  and  in  the  back 
streets,  swarmed  into  the  place,  bent  on  thieving. 
Our  marines  were  instantly  ordered  on  shore  for 
guard  and  police  duty,  but  before  they  were 
landed  the  nimble-fingered  Philippine  had  done 
a  fair  day's  work  in  the  ransacking  line.  Even 
the  arsenal  and  hospitals  were  threatened,  and 
those  in  charge  of  the  latter  must  indeed  have 
thought  they  hud  lit  on  hard  times  when  the 
American  marines  landed.  The  Philippine  they 
understood,  but  the  American  they  seemed  to 
regard  as  a  monster  of  unknown  possibilities. 
As  our  men  landed  they  were  met  by  a  long  pro 
cession  of  priests  and  nuns  who  begged  them  not 
to  massacre  the  wounded  in  the  hospitals. 

The  petition  was  incomprehensible  until  we 
got  a  copy  of  the  governor-general's  proclama 
tion  which  he  had  issued  before  the  fight.  In 
this  extraordinary  document  he  had  told  the 
people  that  we  -who  were  coming  were  the  ex- 
cresences  of  the  world,  that  our  favorite  occupa 
tion  was  the  pillaging  of  churches  and  the  sack 
of  nunneries,  that  our  favorite  amusement  was 
that  of  torturing  our  prisoners,  and  that  when 
this  failed  us  we  turned  our  attention,  as  a  sort 
of  side  entertainment,  to  the  desecration  of 
graveyards.  In  a  word  that  we  were  a  mixture 
of  Frankenstein  and  Moloch,  compared  to  which 


92  With  Dewey  at  Manila. 

the  King  of  Benin  of  the  City  of  Blood  was  a 
daisy-cropping  lamb.  When  we  saw  the  rows 
of  wounded  Spaniards  laid  out  in  the  hospital 
and  crowding  the  cathedral,  we  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  for  gunners  who  had  never  been 
in  action  our  men  had  done  wonders.  We 
gathered  an  estimate,  too,  of  the  number  of 
wounded  which  not  even  the  Spanish  official 
reports  convinced  us  were  excessive. 

The  wounded  were  taken  to  Manila  under  the 
Bed  Cross,  and  since  then  we  have  been  busy 
rendering  Cavite  habitable  and  clean.  We  have 
been  busy,  too,  raising  what  guns  we  could, 
cleaning  up  the  harbor  and  making  things  gen 
erally  ship-shape. 

We  know,  of  course,  that  there  is  much  yet  to 
do.  Spain's  power  in  the  Philippines  has  been 
crushed,  but  it  has  not  been  extinguished.  The 
subjugation  of  Manila  and  the  occupation  of 
these  islands,  the  deportation  of  the  Spanish 
troops  from  the  different  posts  at  Iloilo  and  Guam 
and  the  establishment  of  a  new  form  of  govern 
ment,  have  all  to  be  accomplished.  There  is  much 
indeed  to  do  and  much  help  from  the  strong  hands 
at  home  is  needed  to  do  it.  And  so  it  is  that 
while  we  do  not  sit  idly  by,  but  find  plenty  of 
needed  hard  work  in  this  hot  and  steamy  bay, 
we  keep  our  lights  burning  at  night  and  our 


COM.     EDWARD     P. 


With  Dcwey  at  Manila.  93 

eyes  turned  each  morning  up  to  the  Boca  Grande, 
through  which  we  know  the  big  ships  and  the 
fighting  men  will  come  that  shall  enable  us  to 
finish  well  that  great  work  which  Dewey  has  so 
nobly  begun. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


CAGE 

DEC  30    1951 


REG"  !~D 


LD  21-95m-ll,'50(2877sl6)476 


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.1£f- 


